Ricardo Quaresma scored the only goal of the game moments before halftime to give Porto a 1-0 win at second place Benfica that stretched their lead to seven points.

Freddy Adu came off the bench for the final 12 minutes, but was unable to conjure any late magic on Saturday night.

Benfica's first chance came after seven minutes when Rui Costa played to Nuno Gomes in the area, but Pedro Emanuel rallied to block his shot.

In the 19th minute, Eagles keeper Quim was able to get a fingernail to Tarik Sektioui's drive form the right channel, nudging it inches wide of the far post.

Nuno Gomes was able to get off a corner kick header that beat Helton in the 39th minute, but Lisandro López cleared his keeper's line.

The winner came two minutes later when Ricardo Quaresma accepted a pss on the right, slipped past David Luiz to enter the area and placed a fancy shot past Quim with the outside of his boot.

The best two chances for a second half equalizer fell to Nuno Gomes, yet he was stopped by Helton in a one-on-one in the 47th minute and nodded over while unmarked near the hour.

After coming on, Adu found space to fire from the top of the box with five minutes left on the clock, but his low drive was easily smothered by Helton.

The Eagles will try to rally when they visit Belenenses on December 16th.

Scoring
POR - Ricardo Quaresma (Lucho Gonzalez) 41'

Line-ups
BEN - Quim; Luís Filipe, Luisão, David Luiz, Léo, Petit, Kostas Katsouranis (Óscar Cardozo 66'), Maxi Pereira (Ángel di Maria 70'), Rodriguez, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomes (Freddy Adu 79')

POR - Helton; José Bosingwa, Bruno Alves, Pedro Emanuel, Jorge Fucile, Paulo Assunção, Raúl Meireles (Mario Bolatti 81'), Lucho González, Tarik Sektioui (Hélder Postiga 61'), Ricardo Quaresma (Mariano González 69'), Lisandro López