Paraguay striker Óscar Cardozo connected twice as lead chasers Benfica topped Vitória de Guimarães 3-1 to move clear of the their third place visitors on Saturday night.

Freddy Adu arrived as a late sub for the hosts, who are now unbeaten in four.

Cardozo needed only nine minutes to start the scoring, unleashing a stunning free kick to beat Guimarães keeper Nilson from distance.

Ángel Di María turned architect in the 26th minute, wiggling his way into the area on the left to pick out Maxi Pereira for an easy second.

Guimarães huffed and puffed, but were unable to close the gap until halftime sub Kamel Ghillas buried a deflected free kick just past the hour.

Cardozo eliminated any doubts in stoppage time by capitalizing on a failed Nilson clearance to walk his second of the game into the net.

The victorious Eagles remain at home to face Nacional next weekend.

Scoring
BEN - Óscar Cardozo 6 9'
BEN - Maxi Pereira 2 (Ángel Di María) 26'
VG - Kamel Ghillas 5 61'
BEN - Óscar Cardozo 7 90+2'

Line-ups
VG - Nilson; Andrezinho, Henrique Sereno, Pedro Geromel, Luciano Amaral (Roberto 61'), Flávio Meireles, João Alves (Carlitos 46'), Alan, João Fajardo (Kamel Ghillas 46'), Yves Desmarets, Miljan Mrdaković

BEN - Quim; Luís Filipe, Edcarlos, David Luiz (Nuno Assis 46'), Nélson, Petit, Kostas Katsouranis, Maxi Pereira, Rui Costa (Nuno Gomes 85'), Ángel Di María (Freddy Adu 76'), Óscar Cardozo