The sixth day of Portugal’s Primeira Liga confirmed the excellent moment of Porto, who after the victory in the first round of the Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1, won their fifth league match out of six games. The team coached by Sérgio Conceição defeated Gil Vicente at home with a goal in injury time that exploded the stadium, climbing in the standings to 16 points.
Benfica, fresh from the 2-0 home defeat against Salzburg in the Champions League, rebounded with a 3-1 victory in the league at Portimonense’s pitch in the Algarve. Braga had also fallen in European competition, losing against Napoli, but the 4-1 victory against Boavista chased away the nightmares.
Sporting, which had in contrast won in Austria at Sturm Graz in the Europa League, also confirmed itself in the Portuguese championship by winning with a score of 2-0 against Rio Ave.
The start of the 2023/24 season seems to be following a familiar pattern with Benfica and Porto looking likely to battle it out until the tail end of season when the Portuguese champion will be crowned in May. However, watch out for Sporting, who have also started strongly and will do everything they can to have their say this year. Even Braga has no intention of backing down and will try to fight with a knife between their teeth to trip up those fighting for the Portuguese title.
After six rounds of the Portuguese championship, Sporting are first in the standings with 16 points, tied with Porto, two of the teams among the absolute favourites by bookmakers to win the Primeira Liga. Benfica is only one point behind, on 15 points. Braga is lagging behind the other clubs in the standings, occupying sixth position with 10 points.
After winning the 2022/2023 championship Benfica are attempting to successfully defend the Portuguese title, which no team has done for the past six seasons. Porto, who last year finished second, just two points behind the Lisbon team, will try to put a spoke in the wheels of Di María and his team mates. Let’s not forget about Sporting, who after the 2-0 victory against Rio Ave jumped to the top of the table.
Even in the predictions, Braga remains a little behind the other contenders, but they will no doubt still have their say and create a lot of problems for the favourites for the title.
