on 9 april, benfica hosted marítimo at home. they were caught off guard and briefly trailed by 2–0. petit and a 96th-minute penalty from simão equalized for benfica. nonetheless, the draw granted porto the chance to increase their lead to nine points with four games left, making the title renewal "impossible," as koeman described it. six days later, on 15 april, benfica played visitor to boavista. hoping to take advantage of sporting's slip hours earlier and only battling for a direct qualification for the next champions league campaign, benfica beat the home side 2–0, with goals from tiago and mantorras. the win also broke a ten-year winless streak at the estádio do bessa, the last win being on 30 march 1996. on 23 april, benfica played nacional on estádio da madeira. benfica led the game most of time, but conceded a late goal from ricardo fernandes and lost the chance to overtake sporting. on 30 april, benfica hosted and defeated vitória de setúbal 1–0 with a first half goal from anderson. the win meant koeman had surpass giovanni trapattoni's previous points total (67–65), but without the same glory; porto had already won the league and sporting was in good position to finish second.