Liga Betclic: X-ray of the Benfica-Vitória SC match

Mission given, mission accomplished. Last Sunday, December 1, the Benfiquistas came together to play the role of the 12th man in Bruno Lage's team as they traveled to Arouca, and the unceasing support was fundamental to a 0-2 victory. Now there's a matchday (the 13th of the competition) in the hell of the Estádio da Luz, where the red family will have the chance to show their strength once again when they host Vitória SC at 6pm on Saturday, December 7.

After the Arouca game, coach Bruno Lage discussed another demanding phase, with six games to go until the end of the calendar year, and made a point of stressing that his thoughts were already on the Vimaranenses, an opponent who arrive at the Cathedral in 6th place in the Liga Betclic and with an unfavorable record against the Eagles.

In the 158 games between the two teams, the Glorioso have won 111, scoring 364 goals and conceding 125. The gap widens when we look exclusively at the Eagles' games as hosts: 67 wins in 79 matches, with 225 goals scored and just 38 conceded.

With one game in hand - the Nacional-Benfica match on matchday 8 has been rescheduled for December 19 - the eagles are five points clear at the start of this round and are determined to continue their winning streak against a Vitória SC side that, according to data collected on the Sofascore platform, is one of the teams in the league with more than 50% possession: 54.9% compared to 60.4% for the Reds.

In terms of shots, Benfica have 17.6 per game (7.3 on target), while the Minhotos have 12.1 (4.2 on target), numbers that help explain the difference in goals in the competition: 30 for the reds, 16 for the Vimaranenses. Also noteworthy is the number of successful dribbles, where the eagles have 10.4 per 90 minutes compared to 4.0 for their next opponents.

On the Eagles' side, the top scorers (top 3) are Aktürkoglu (5 goals), Di María (4) and Pavlidis (3). For Vimaranenses, Nélson Oliveira (3 goals), Gustavo Silva (2) and Jesús Ramírez (2) stand out in the finishing statistics.