Benfica stretched their winning run at the start of this UEFA Europa League’s League Phase campaign to four matches by grinding out a 3-1 win against Lech Poznan in what was a third successive H2H victory.
Benfica had already been making light work of the UEL this season, and they had no issues in the early stages here, taking the lead after just six minutes.
Andreas Schjelderup did the heavy lifting in the build-up, powering his way to the byline before whipping across a ball which Mateusz Lis fumbled, allowing Rafa Silva to bundle over the line.
The opener came during an onslaught on the Lech Poznan goal in the game’s infancy, with the hosts having chance after chance. Claudio Echeverri was a particular menace, twice firing narrowly over from the edge of the area in the opening 15 minutes.
Benfica kept up their pressure for most of the first half, but Lech were dogged in defence and managed to get into half-time just a goal behind, which, given their distinct lack of attacking threat, will have felt like a win in itself.
They had to survive a huge scare in first-half stoppage, though, as Schjelderup dinked over Lis and Terry Yegbe inadvertently cleared against his own crossbar.
The second half started as the first ended – with Benfica in the ascendancy. Schjelderup was the man leading the charge, creating another gilt-edged chance for the hosts within 10 minutes of the restart when his lung-busting run through the centre of the pitch found Daniel Banjaqui, whose ferocious drive was repelled by Lis.
It took the visitors 62 minutes to create a meaningful opportunity, but they were thwarted when they did, as Patrik Walemark’s diving header was pushed away to safety by Anatoliy Trubin.
That miss proved to be costly a matter of minutes later when stunning individual brilliance from Gianluca Prestianni saw him tie the Lech backline in knots before rifling an effort across goal and into the far corner.
However, the deficit was halved when Enzo Barrenechea’s moment of madness saw him play a blind pass inside his own box, allowing Leo Bengtsson to tap into an empty net.
Lech were unable to take advantage of that reprieve, though, and Georgiy Sudakov goal in the dying moments confirmed their winless run would extend to six games.
Benfica, meanwhile, have now won their last seven in all competitions and appear to be settling in well under new head coach Marco Silva.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Georgiy Sudakov (Benfica)
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