Benfica maintained their 100 per cent start to the Champions League campaign with a thumping 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid.
The Portuguese side were looking to back up their 2-1 win over Red Star Belgrade on matchday one and Kerem Akturkoglu deservedly put them in front but missed a host of other chances to increase their lead before the break.
However, Benfica put a poor Atletico side to the sword in the second period when Angel Di Maria tucked home from a penalty and strikes from Alexander Bah and Orkun Kokcu condemned the visitors to their first defeat in the competition.
Following a slow start, Benfica started to put the pressure on their Spanish visitors and Jan Oblak was forced into action after he palmed Vangelis Pavlidis’ header wide.
The home side started brighter of the two sides and opened the scoring in the 12th minute.
Fredrik’s Aursnes’ long-range effort forced Oblak into a save but the Norwegian received the ball back and picked out Akturkoglu, who finished to make it 1-0.
Benfica were in total control and threatened a second when former Real Madrid winger Di Maria blasted marginally wide.
Atletico were lucky to only be a goal down at the break after Pavlidis rocketed an effort off the post.
The home side had a golden opportunity to double their advantage seven minutes into the second half from the penalty spot.
Pavlidis was brought down by Conor Gallagher inside the area and Di Maria made no mistake from the resulting spot-kick, sending Oblak the wrong way.
It was 3-0 when Jan-Niklas Beste’s corner found Bah, who powered a header past Oblak.
Benfica rounded off a five-star performance in the 84th minute after Reinildo brought down Zeki Amdouni in the area, Kokcu converted from 12 yards to seal a damaging result for Diego Simeone’s men.
