Jhon Durán has five goals for Benfica this season, and one of them came in the 81st minute of the 4-1 League Cup win over GIL Vicente. A Bola says he is scoring every 100 minutes, which puts him behind only Vangelis Pavlidis in the club's forward race. The stats available to us put him on 87.3 minutes per goal across 262 minutes, so the benchmark is even stronger than the newspaper's estimate.

Durán's output in limited minutes

The clearest point is the workload. Durán has only eight Primeira Liga appearances, yet he has still found the net five times, and his goals have come against Hearts, Casa Pia, Celtic twice and GIL Vicente. That is the kind of return Benfica want from a rotation forward, especially when the goal can arrive late and still swing a game comfortably in their favour.

Marco Silva, speaking to A Bola, said: "If he were not committed, he would not have signed for Benfica. He had a year below what he can and must do, two loans that did not go as he intended. It is past, what interests us is the present and what he can do,". Durán was equally direct about the hierarchy when he told A Bola, in comments translated from Portuguese: "everyone knows that Pavlidis is the first option and that he deserves everything, because he has been playing very well."

Pavlidis still sets the bar

Pavlidis remains the reference point. He has 17 goals in 17 games at the start of the season, and the club's scoring order still reflects that. The gap is not about whether Durán is productive, because he clearly is. It is about how Benfica spread the minutes and how often Durán gets the chance to add to a total that already looks tidy from a backup role.

The club also have other forwards scoring at decent rates, with Prestianni averaging 116 minutes per goal and Lukebakio averaging 131. Durán's rate sits above both, even if Pavlidis is still the first name on the team sheet for finishing. Benfica's next league fixture will tell us whether Durán stays in this rhythm or whether the minutes are spread wider again.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →