Portuguese Football in English
The first leg of the Portuguese Cup semi-finals were played this midweek.
Porto beat Sporting 2-1 at Alvalade on Wednesday night, while on Thursday Tondela all but booked their place at Jamor thanks to a 3-0 victory over Mafra.
PortuGOAL rounds up the action with video highlights.
Only ten rounds of matches remain of the 2021/22 Liga Bwin season after Jornada 24 concluded with Braga and Santa Clara’s 0-0 draw yesterday evening.
Porto and Sporting both dropped points in the title race, allowing Benfica to gain some ground with a comfortable win over Vitória Guimarães.
The match of the weekend took place at Estoril as Boavista came away victorious in a 3-2 thriller. Their hero on the day was the unlikely source of centre-back Rodrigo Abascal, who is our PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.
FC Porto have failed to increase their advantage at the top of the Primeira Liga table after being forced to share the spoils at home to ten-man Gil Vicente in a 1-1 showdown, this Sunday.
The visitors had a man red carded just three minutes into the encounter but found themselves a goal up, nevertheless, through key man Fran Navarro.
Porto equalised soon after in the second half via Evanilson’s tap-in, but the inability to follow up the Brazilian’s effort meant the Dragons could only maintain their six-point advantage over second-placed Sporting.
Elsewhere, there was an important win registered by Benfica, at home to Vitória de Guimarães, as a goal from Gonçalo Ramos and a Darwin Nuñez brace gave the Eagles a 3-0 victory, leaving them just four points behind second place.
Nacional’s promotion hopes were dealt a blow after a 1-1 draw against Trofense at Estádio da Madeira. Despite dominating the majority of the first half, a self-inflicted blow saw Youcef Bechou give the visitors a surprise lead against the run of play.
Trofense winger Capita received a straight red card before half time as Nacional continued to search for an equalizer. That moment came in the 71st minute through Chico Ramos, setting up a pulsating finale with both teams spurning chances to take all three points.
Marítimo held off a late assault from Sporting CP to earn a hard fought 1-1 draw at Estádio dos Barreiros. Bruno Xadas, making his first start since November, opened the scoring in the 5th minute after capitalizing on an error from Nuno Santos.
Ruben Amorim’s side, who were without Zouhair Feddal, João Palhinha, Pedro Gonçalves and Pablo Sarabia, asserted their authority and equalised through Islam Slimani before the break. Pedro Porro went closest to breaking the deadlock in the 75th minute, his shot hitting the bar and the post but failing to cross the line.
