Roundup up the Portuguese goalscorers this weekend across the continent, Raphael Guerreiro is once more the biggest story as the Seleção star found the net for the second match running with Borussia Dortmund.
Elsewhere, veteran striker Flávio Paixão continues to enjoy fine form in Poland, while there were goals for the Luso contingent in Belgium, Bulgaria, England and Turkey.
A dramatic weekend of action in Liga NOS saw a seismic shift in the league title race as Benfica’s previous seven point lead at the top was reduced to just one as Braga upset the champions at Estádio da Luz.
Porto took advantage of the loss to close the gap in beating Vitória Guimarães in a hard-fought encounter. The match was regrettably overshadowed by deplorable abuse in the direction of Moussa Marega, who had earlier turned the tide in his team’s favour on the pitch with yet another invaluable contribution for the Dragões.
For this edition of the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week we focus on Marega the player, and the sort of brilliance he showed that he is capable of on Sunday evening.
Domestic results in Portugal’s top division this weekend opened up the prospect of an exciting and closely-fought title race until the end of the season. Unfortunately, none of the headlines will be about that. A disgraceful incident took place in the Vitória Guimarães versus FC Porto match that leaves an ugly stain on the beautiful game in the country.
Porto striker Moussa Marega, who scored what turned out to be the winning goal, was the subject of racist abuse from the home supporters and refused to play on. As he stormed off the pitch, his Porto teammates and coach Sérgio Conceição, as well as the Vitória players, tried to persuade him to change his mind. Marega was resolute in his decision, however, and ended up being substituted. Tom Kundert reports and brings ongoing reaction.
Marseille took another significant step towards finishing the season as runners-up by coming from behind to win 2-1 at Lille on Sunday evening in Ligue 1.
André Villas-Boas’ side fell behind early in the second half but a quickfire double through Reinaldo’s own goal and a winner by Dario Benedetto gave Marseille the points and opened up an 11-point gap to third in the table.
Jorge Jesus and Flamengo lifted another trophy on Sunday afternoon after the Brazilian champions beat Athletico Paranaense in the Super Cup in the capital Brasilia.
Fla ran out 3-0 winners at the National Stadium thanks to goals from Bruno Henrique, Gabriel Barbosa and Giorgian De Arrascaeta, leaving the Portuguese coach to again praise the quality of his team during the post-match reaction.
Benfica have seen their comfortable lead at the top of the Primeira Liga table turned on its head after Sporting de Braga stunned the Estádio da Luz into a 1-0 defeat for the hosts.
João Palhinha’s goal on the brink of half time made all the difference in Rúben Amorim’s return to Lisbon, enabling FC Porto to now trail the Eagles by a point after overcoming Vitória de Guimarães, in a game marred by racism, with a 2-1 win.
Elsewhere, in the race for European qualification, Sporting saw third place taken from them after being forced to settle for a 1-1 draw away to Rio Ave, having chased a portion of the game whilst being down to ten men. As always, PortuGoal brings you the best of the action.
The race for Europa League qualification in Liga NOS is hotting up of late with the contenders dropping in and out of form interchangeably. This particular contest also had a new dimension added to it this week as Porto and Benfica’s confirmation as this season’s Taça de Portugal finalists means an extra space in Europe will be awarded to the team that finishes 5th domestically, given the current top two once again look nailed on for the two available Champions League places. Ahead I take a look at the contenders in the battle for Europe.
“Rúben Semedo will be the future centre-back of the Seleção, I have no doubts,” proclaimed Sporting coach Jorge Jesus in May 2016, having successfully integrated his talented 22-year-old defender into a Lions side enjoying a formidable end to the season.
Jesus went on to assert that he expected Semedo’s transition into senior international football to commence imminently. However, almost four years later it is only now that Semedo has the realisation of such expectations back in sight after numerous off-field issues threatened to entirely derail the career of one of Portugal’s brightest prospects.
AC Milan 1-1 JuventusCristiano Ronaldo won and then scored a late penalty to give Juventus a significant advantage in their Coppa Italia semi-final first leg with AC Milan.
Juve trailed 1-0 at San Siro with just a couple of minutes of normal time remaining when Ronaldo connected at the far post with a scissor kick, which was blocked by the arm of Davide Calabria. A penalty was awarded and Ronaldo converted to put the visitors level ahead of the return leg next month.
Porto 3-0 Viseu (4-1 on aggregate)
Porto made no mistake in booking their spot in the Taça de Portugal final. Viseu had fought hard to a 1-1 draw in the first leg but couldn’t cause any problems this time out.
Alex Telles converted a penalty in the first half after Zé Luis earned his side a spot kick. The forward headed a second and Sérgio Oliveira rounded out the scoring from close range to set up a Jamor date with Benfica at the end of the season.
“Racist behaviour is intolerable in an open and developed society. The Portuguese Football Federation expresses its solidarity with the player Moussa Marega. The perpetrators of racist insults should be identified and brought to justice.”
