A common complaint among groundhoppers attempting to plan a trip to take in Portuguese stadiums is the tardy announcement of the Primeira Liga match schedules. Protests from local fans and journalists have tended to fall on deaf ears, with the definitive dates and kick-off times of fixtures often announced less than two weeks in advance of the game in question.
It is an even bigger problem for foreign football tourists, who have to factor in flights and hotel bookings as they come to savour the unique atmosphere and experience that Portuguese football has to offer.
Depending on the schedule of European matches, Portugal’s biggest clubs – Benfica, Sporting, Porto and Braga – could play their domestic games on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday of any given weekend.
The grievances have been heard! At least for now. In a highly unusual development, Liga Portugal has announced the definitive dates and kick-off times for all top-flight matches until the end of November, Round 12 of the competition.
Lisbon duo set for Friday and Monday action
With Sporting playing some of their Champions League matches on a Tuesday, the Lions will play two of their next six Primeira Liga matches on a Friday: Braga v Sporting (9 October), and Casa Pia v Sporting (30 October), ahead of their UCL games away at Lens and Shakhtar Donetsk respectively.
Likewise, Benfica will play their domestic league matches three times on a Monday (versus Santa Clara (a) on 26 October; Alverca (h) on 2 November and Famalicão (h) on 30 November) owing to their Europa League schedule on Thursday nights.
Big clashes for the diary
Selected big clashes that take place in the opening third of the Liga Portugal championship.
Porto v Benfica, Sunday 20 September, 8.30 pm
Braga v Sporting, Friday 9 October, 8.15 pm
Porto v Sporting, Sunday 29 November, 8.30 pm
Rearranged matches
More immediately, Benfica and Braga will play their matches in the coming week that were postponed due to their playoff ties in the Europa League and Conference League respectively. Moreirense v Benfica will take place on Wednesday 9 September, while Estrela da Amadora v Braga will be played the day after, on Thursday 10 September.
No date has been set yet for the Braga v Gil Vicente match that was called off owing to a bout of food-poisoning in the Braga squad.
To find out the official times of top-flight league matches in Portugal, click on this page of the official Liga Portugal website and then click on the Jornada (Round of Matches) along the top menu.
