Benfica earned themselves a little second place breathing room with a late 2-1 winner at Paços de Ferreira on Saturday evening.

Freddy Adu came on late for the Eagles, replacing Oscar Cardozo in the 83rd minute.

The visitors started the scoring in the 21st minute when Christian Rodríguez nodded home a Rui Costa cross.

Dedé threatened for P. Ferreira six minutes later, but Quim was able to make the save with surprising ease. A moment later, however, Tiago Valente knotted the match from a fine Cristiano set-up.

Nuno Assis used some fancy footwork to carve out a chance for himself just before the break, but could only find the side netting with his shot.

After Ricardinho missed just wide to open the second stanza, Benfica gradually took command of the proceedings. The decider would finally come four minutes from time when Kostas Katsouranis cleaned up a deflected Rodríguez header.

The home side nearly drew level in stoppage time, but José Furtado's header nailed the crossbar.

The win pulls Benfica to within six points of tabletop Porto ahead of next Sunday's visit from Boavista.

Scoring
BEN - Christian Rodríguez 2 (Rui Costa) 21'
PF - Tiago Valente 1 (Cristiano) 29'
BEN - Kostas Katsouranis 1 86'

Line-ups
PF - Peterson Peçanha; Chico Silva, Tiago Valente, Rovérsio, Mangualde (Antonielton Ferreira 65'), Dedé, Filipe Anunciação (Wesley 87'), Pedrinha, Renato Queirós (José Furtado 73'), Cristiano, Ricardinho

BEN - Quim; Luís Filipe, Luisão, Kostas Katsouranis, Léo, Gilles Binya, Maxi Pereira, Christian Rodríguez, Rui Costa, Nuno Assis (Ángel Di María 72'), Oscar Cardozo (Freddy Adu 83')