Portuguese Football in English
Portugal’s two representatives in the group stage of the Europa League got their campaigns off to a highly satisfactory start.
Benfica beat Lech Poznan 4-2 in Poland, with Uruguayan striker Darwin Núñez bagging a hat-trick, while at the Quarry birthday boy Wenderson Galeno was the star of the show in Braga’s 3-0 victory over AEK Athens.
Porto’s awful record in England continued last night as a 3-1 loss against Manchester City made it 18 defeats and 3 draws in 21 games in UEFA competitions in her majesty’s country.
The Dragons matched their opponents for over an hour of the match and even took the lead through a stunning individual goal by Luis Díaz, only to be undone by controversial penalty and free-kick awards, converted by Sergio Agüero and Ilkay Gündogan respectively. A fine strike by City substitute Ferran Torres saw the hosts run out 3-1 winners.
Conceição vented his anger at the officials after the match and also at counterpart Pep Guardiola, the two coaches having exchanged angry words during the encounter.
As the proposal for a European Super League is hotly discussed throughout the football world, it is more important than ever that Portugal’s club sides snap out of their recent slump and start making an impact in UEFA competitions, if they don’t want to be definitively left behind.
Given Benfica and Porto’s rich past in the European Cup/Champions League, each club having won the world’s elite club competition twice, they will feel hard done by if overlooked when it comes to formulating any new continent-wide league. But recent results by Portuguese clubs have only lent weight to the argument that they are now in Europe’s second division. This week marks the start of efforts to invert that perception.
Liga NOS 20/21 resumed this weekend after the new campaign’s first international break. Tondela and newly-promoted Farense still await their first wins, as do ambitious Boavista, who tasted defeat to Vitória Guimarães last night.
Braga’s turnaround continued as they beat Nacional, while the season’s first ‘Clássico’ saw Sporting and Porto share the points in an exciting 2-2 draw.
Title favourites Benfica took advantage of their rivals’ failure to win in extending their own lead at the top of the division. The Eagles’ 100% record continued in no small part due to the excellent form of PortuGOAL Figure of the Week Luca Waldschmidt, the German who is finding his feet in Portugal very quickly.
Benfica have gone five points clear at the top of the table following FC Porto’s 2-2 draw against Sporting, enabling them to take advantage with a 3-0 win away to Rio Ave, this Sunday.
A brace from Gian-Luca Waldschmidt helped Jorge Jesus’ team on their way to their fourth league victory of the season, distancing themselves from second-placed Porto, currently on seven points from a possible 12, and city rivals Sporting who are also on seven points but have a game in hand.
Elsewhere, Sporting de Braga were able to make it back-to-back wins in their reception of Nacional at the Estádio Municipal, defeating the newly-promoted side 2-1. PortuGOAL has more of the first ‘Clássico’ weekend of the season.
