In an early exit from the 29th round, Benfica defeated Maia, quite calmly, 37-22 (20-12 in the first half) and began to lead the Handball1 classification with the same points as FC Porto (79), but played again. As is Sporting (third place, 76 points), which keeps expectations in the air for next Saturday, when the Eagles visit the Dragão Arena.

If the North continued to balance the match in the first minutes, mainly due to the behavior of their goalkeeper Diogo Ribeiro, six minutes without scoring and 3-0 partially opened the first gap (7-3) which then continued to the limit and 9 goals (17-8), after a new 3-0 sequence (17-8) in which the Lisbon team took advantage of whenever they could finish the counter-attack.

And when this was not the case, or through six axes in the central area, Petar Djurdic (8) ensured that the scoreboard was working by scoring 5 of his six goals in the first half through the 7-meter mark.

In the second half, after the hosts increased the difference to 10 on two occasions (22-12, 26-16), Maya, especially Hugo Rosario (4), Joao Carvalho (3) and Thomas Barbosa, reduced the difference. to 7 (27-20), but Benfica completely dominated the last 13 minutes of the match, who played the last game of the season in Luz, often with a numerical advantage due to the opponent’s penalties and almost always in physical superiority thanks to the spin of the bench, but without that really helped us in Improving the level of handball being played in these last minutes.