Fonseca off to a flyer, Dalot back, Eintracht woe

It was a night of mixed fortunes for Portugal’s four participants in the Europa League. Pride of place goes to Braga, who travelled to England and came away with a victory against Wolves thanks to Ricardo Horta’s second-half strike.

A brace from Tiquinho Soares was enough for Porto to see off the challenge of Swiss outfit Young Boys, but Sporting and Vitória Guimarães began their campaign with defeats. 

Famalicão is owned by Israeli businessman Idan Ofer

In a transfer window unlike many, a good quantity of the lesser-thought-of Primeira Liga sides were able to fetch themselves their fair share of hype with moves made during the summer.

From the coups of Mehdi Taremi and Lucas Evangelista at Rio Ave and Vitória de Guimarães, respectively, to the arrivals of former flavours of the month, such as Marlos Moreno at Portimonense and Santa Clara’s Lincoln, everything points towards a potentially more competitive Liga NOS season as plenty of teams aim to leave their imprint on proceedings.

Nobody has pushed that boat out quite like Primeira Liga newcomers Famalicão, however, landing a whopping 19 new first-team signings and translating their exciting movements into a thus far unbeaten start to the season, topping the table after five league games. 

How much difference can one man make to a team? The answer depends, of course, on the man, but it can be significant. You see it in the Premier League with Harry Kane, whose presence elevates Tottenham to a team that can genuinely beat anyone. In the early years of the millennium the same could be said for Thierry Henry’s contribution at Arsenal.

But surely the most cited example is the man every football fan sees whenever they pick up their copy of FIFA 19. With Cristiano Ronaldo at the helm, the Unibet sportsbook shows Juventus as 1/3 on to win Serie A. Whenever there is absence or injury so much as rumoured, those odds start to slip. A decade ago, it was the same story at Manchester United. Ronaldo led the charge in United’s three title winning seasons in a way that has never seen before or since. When Ronaldo left the Premier League side, so did the trophies. 

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  Justin/rochester — It’s really not even close, Ronaldo is miles better than any other Portuguese player. Just think about the impact he’s had on other Portuguese players alone. I’m not saying that Portuguese players weren’t in high demand before Ronaldo but how many young players have moved to big teams in Eur......

Champions League matchday one roundup

It was a disappointing start for Portugal’s sole representative in this season’s Champions League as Benfica fell to a 2-1 home defeat against German team RB Leipzig. Two goals by Timo Werner put the Bundesliga outfit in control, Seferovic pulled a goal back, but despite a late rally the Eagles could not find an equaliser.

Meanwhile, like always, a multitude of Portuguese players and managers were aiming to do well for their respective clubs all over Europe. In a largely low-key first matchday for Portuguese abroad, it was Mário Rui, Daniel Podence and João Mário who had most reasons to smile. 

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  Nunogomes21 — Severely disappointed. I can accept that losing happens, but only when you give it your best shot. Lage again like last season isn’t taking the European competition seriously. This is game 1 of the group and at home. You are expected to go for the win, especially considering they weren’t playing......
  jon/usa — I understand that the league should always be our priority and that winning the champions league with such a limited budget is all but impossible, but I still see no reason why we can't field our strongest possible 11 in a group stage home game against Leipzig. Rafa is hands down our most dynamic ......
  Angelo — Someone insisted not too long ago that RdT would end up being a bust. I consider a forward that doesn't score goals a bust. I can't really critique though, since I'm a Sporting fan. Benfica does have the far superior team in terms of both starting eleven and depth. It's really up to Benfica to carry......

Portugal was represented by four managers when the last-16 of the Asian Champions League began this summer but as the semi-final line-up was finalised this week, all four representatives have suffered elimination earlier than hoped.

Quarter-final exits for Vítor Pereira and Rui Vitória saw them join José Morais and Rui Faria in missing out on a place at the business end of Asia’s premier club competition. And for both Pereira and Vitória, there was plenty of regret about the nature of their failure to reach the final four.

Renato Sanches took charge of his future this summer. Bayern Munich’s 2-2 draw with Hertha Berlin on the Bundesliga curtain-raiser in mid-August provided enough evidence for the Portuguese to decide he should no longer submit to the will of the champions and endure another season of uncertainty in Germany.

Bayern’s failure to beat Hertha at home was a surprise to many, but there was little out of character about coach Niko Kovac issuing Sanches a five-minute cameo as the match drew to a close. The token appearance had become an all to familiar gesture for the former Benfica midfielder and this time Sanches decided a change was needed.

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  Angelo — I disagree. His decision to move from Benfica wasn't entirely his. Then, Bayern switched coaches shortly after. Kovac had no intention of ever playing him. It wasn't just that he was surplus. It had more to do with Kovac. The way Kovac went about concealing his disbelief in Sanches was deceitful and......
  Chris — Enjoyed the article, but I feel the opposite about Renato. He is no victim. He is, like any other player, subject to making the right choices and working for what he gets. I think of a similar case in Ricardo Quaresma during his early days. Talented players, but the attitude is not quite right, ......

Liga NOS returned with a bang after the international break with 34 goals scored in the 9 matches over the weekend. Vitória Setúbal began the gameweek by upsetting Braga, Tondela and Belenenses secured impressive away wins over Rio Ave and Marítimo respectively, while Benfica and Porto kept up the pressure on unlikely leaders Famalicão, whose brilliant start to the season continued as PortuGOAL Figure of the Week Fábio Martins inspired them to victory over Paços Ferreira.

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  Angelo — Famalicao has already done enough to stave off relegation....

In one of the most thrilling games of the weekend across Europe, Sunday evening saw André Villas-Boas’ Marseille stage a sensational comeback from 2-0 down to win 4-3 at Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco in France. The result has deep impacts on both Portuguese coaches, with Villas-Boas encouraged as his side move into the top 4 positions while Jardim is forced to answer questions about Deja-vu.

Another prominent Portuguese coach continues to make the headlines in Brazil after Jorge Jesus and Flamengo extended their lead at the top of the Brazilian league with victory over nearest rivals Santos. Meanwhile on the player front, Gonçalo Paciência and Raphaël Guerreiro were on target in Germany, while Nani’s sensational brace lit up the United States’ MLS and William Carvalho was sent off in Spain.

A 98th-minute header from Ivan Marcano gave ten-man F.C. Porto a precious 3-2 victory away to Portimonense, having seen the hosts pull a two-goal-advantage back to 2-2 in the second period and place the two sides on the brink of sharing the spoils.

Porto’s win sees them go level on points with second-placed Benfica after their comfortable 2-0 victory against Gil Vicente on Saturday night, just as Famalicão held firm in first place with a 4-2 win versus Paços de Ferreira.

Elsewhere, Sporting de Braga picked up their third league defeat of the season in Friday’s Matchday 5 opener versus Vitória de Setúbal, losing 1-0, meanwhile Sporting, on Leonel Pontes’ debut as interim manager, closed out the week with a 1-1 draw away to Boavista. PortuGOAL has more from this weekend's action.

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  Bruno — Wheres the report about the liga leaders. Famalicão for champions!...
  Angelo — Ok Chris. You win. I've yet to talk out of my rear end, but I'll work on that skill once I teach my pot-bellied pig how to talk out of his snout. He's very close. I almost got him to say "cookie." I appreciate that you at least admitted to Porto catching a "few" breaks now and then. Someday when my ......
  Angelo — I'm an obvious Sporting fan, but the team is nowhere near battling for the league. It has been a while for Sporting. I'm afraid that the team has started to resemble the New York Jets of American football, lots of media coverage for a whole lot of nothing. My hope is that some wealthy oligarch will ......

Ricardo Quaresma has opened up about his acrimonious exit from Turkish outfit Besiktas, having spent six seasons with the Istanbul side.

In a heartfelt interview, the veteran Portuguese winger spoke about being forced out of the club having seen a deterioration in his relationship with president Fikret Orman.

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  Robbie — Z has claimed to do business in China and has made claims of being wealthy. Z has made claims of being a big time investor, and now he's going shopping with his wife. So now we all know he's broke and single....
  Angelo — I'd prefer Quaresma over Rodriguez. The only downside to him though is that he's old. Old guys tend to breakdown more often and have longer recovery spells. Look at Pepe. The unfortunate truth is that guys like Quaresma and Pepe, and even Ronaldo at some point, won't know when to quit. They'll end u......
  Joao Rosario — He still got it. Fit like a 25 year old. Could play at least 2 more years at the highest level. Shame he's wasting his most important years in a lower league for a mid-table club....

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Often you can’t be spectacular, but what matters is the three points. We know we played a good team and sometimes to dance you need a good partner.”

Sérgio Conceição
(Porto coach after narrow victory over Young Boys) 
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