FC Porto won at Moreirense to keep within touching distance of the Eagles whilst third place Famalicão won at Boavista and Sporting, in fourth place, overcame a flu ravaged V.Setúbal.
Benfica found themselves a goal down when Iranian winger Mehrdad Mohammadi beat Ferro down the right flank before rifling in the opener for CD Aves.
The Eagles had won fourteen of their fifteen league games whilst Aves had lost all their eight away games so a major shock was on the cards. The visitors held firm until fifteen minutes from time when a controversially-awarded penalty gave Pizzi the opportunity to level the score. With the game fast approaching full-time André Almeida found a way through the Aves defence striking low to beat the keeper and steal all three points.
The previous week FC Porto had picked up their first win away against Sporting in eleven years and they knew they had to continue the good work against Moreirense if they were to have any chance of catching the leaders.
The hosts gave the Dragons an early shock when they took the lead through Fábio Abreu after just three minutes. Porto bit back through a Tiquinho Soares header on thirty-two minutes and seven minutes later they were in front when Alex Telles slotted home from the penalty spot. Moreirense levelled matters before the break courtesy of João Aurélio’s slice of luck when crossing. The second-half belonged to Porto as Luís Díaz gave them the lead and five minutes from time Jesús Corona’s wonder-volley made it 4-2 to the visitors. Famalicão were in all sorts of trouble after just sixty seconds at Boavista as keeper Rafael Defendi was sent-off for a last-man challenge. The keeper’s replacement, Vaná, was on hand to prevent Famalicão’s night from worsening after anticipating Heriberto Tavares’ chip when bearing in on goal midway through the half. The stalemate was broken ten minutes from time when Toni Martínez secured all three precious points for Famalicão with a strike aimed at the near post.
V.Setúbal failed in their efforts to have Sporting’s visit postponed due to a heavy flu outbreak within their camp, the hosts were forced to take the Lions on with more than twenty first-team players affected by the contagious virus. Sporting took the lead through Stefan Ristovski on twenty-seven minutes.
Rumoured to be Premier League bound - could either Spurs or Manchester United finally get their man? - Bruno Fernandes added to his goals tally seven minutes later after being brought down inside the box. Carlinhos was on hand to claw goal back for V.Setúbal just after the hour mark and in a nervous finale Sporting wrapped up the points when Bruno Fernandes added a third in stoppage time, keeping the distance from third place at one point.
Down on the south-coast Portimonense drew 0-0 with P.Ferreira and find themselves firmly anchored in the drop zone. SC Farense relinquished top spot in the Segunda Liga after losing 3-0 at Penafiel and the Faro based club have now lost three of their last four games.
SC Olhanense had their lead at the top of the Campeonato Portugal cut to just one point after a goal loss draw at Sintrense.
Olhanense remain top of Division D with forty points, one more than Real SC (Lisbon), four more than Alverca (Vila França) and six more than Louletano who beat Loures 2-0.
In an all Algarve local derby Amacenenses entertain SC Olhanense at the Estádio Municipal de Armação de Pêra on Sunday kick-off 3pm.