Porto beat Nacional to tighten grip on 1st in Primeira Liga

IANS  |  Porto (Portugal) 

defeated Nacional 3-1 to go 6 points clear atop the and extend their to 18 matches in all competitions.

The Dragons have 42 points after 16 matches, while archrivals Sporting are fourth with 34 points, reports

Braga, who beat Boavista 1-0 Sunday, are second in the with 36 points, 1 more than Benfica, who doubled-up Rio Ave 4-2 in their first game after the firing of

Yacine Brahimi opened the scoring for in the 32nd minute and Tiquinho Soares made it 2-0 for the hosts six minutes later. But Nacional reacted and clawed back a goal in the 40th minute courtesy of a strike by

Brahimi got a second in the 57th minute to assure the victory.

Earlier Monday in Tondela, the home side prevailed 2-1 over Sporting despite having to play the final for 40 minutes with only 10 men after João Jaquite was sent off with a straight red card for a foul against

Tondela jumped out to the lead with Juan Delgado's goal in the 6th minute. Tomane boosted the advantage to 2-0 in the 74th minute.

Sporting's narrowed the deficit to 2-1 just two minutes later and the team nearly pulled level in the 79th minute on a thunderous Abdoulay Diaby header that hit the post.

Moreirense won 1-0 at home to Aves to climb to 5th place with 28 points.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, January 08 2019. 15:30 IST