Portuguese Football in English
The soccer world doesn’t know for certain when the summer transfer window will open. FIFA is still ironing out details to determine an exact date.
A range of Portuguese stars, such as Danilo, Joelson Fernandes, João Palhinha and Florentino Luís will be watching carefully, with Arsenal, Barcelona, Wolves and AC Milan respectively reported as interested in buying them.
Sporting de Braga’s hopes of a top three finish have been kept alive after Sporting’s six-point advantage was cut to four, following tonight's goalless draw away to ten-man Moreirense. The Arsenalistas, in action first on Saturday night, were able to apply pressure on the on-song Lions with a 4-0 victory at home to Desportivo das Aves on Artur Jorge’s debut. Sporting would fail to follow up on Braga’s antics in their uninspiring performance against Moreirense, dropping points for the first time since their comeback fixture.
FC Porto are just two wins away from clinching the Primeira Liga title after dismantling Belenenses with a 5-0 score-line at home, replying to Benfica’s 3-1 win over Boavista in their first game since Bruno Lage’s resignation as manager.
With both title challengers at home this weekend, Benfica kicked off Nélson Veríssimo’s reign as the interim head coach with goals from André Almeida, Pizzi and Gabriel to apply pressure on Porto, momentarily trimming the Dragons’ lead to three points.
A big performance at home saw Sergio Conceição’s men rack up five goals at the Estádio do Dragão, however, restoring their six-point-advantage in style and edging the Blue & Whites closer to the title.
Only five matches remain in this extended Liga NOS season and while the division waved goodbye to Aves this round, there remains plenty to be sorted out in the coming weeks.
Jornada 29 saw its fair share of drama as Rio Ave toppled Braga in the game of the week, heating up the battle for Europe as Famalicão stumbled. There is one more team still to drop down to the second tier next season and this fight intensified too. Only four points separate six teams battling to preserve their top flight status.
Marítimo did their bit on the latter point to move up to 12th place and in doing so swung the league title pendulum ever closer to Porto’s grasp, upsetting Benfica in no small part thanks to a stunning cameo from PortuGOAL Figure of the Week Nanú.
Sporting have increased the gap between third and fourth place to five points after a 2-0 home victory versus Gil Vicente was complemented with Sporting de Braga’s 4-3 defeat to Rio Ave.
A seven-goal-thriller at the Estádio dos Arcos, tipped in Rio Ave’s favour by Mehdi Taremi's late penalty, enabled Carlos Carvalhal’s side to move within touching distance of fourth-placed Braga, who, as a consequence, said their goodbyes to recently-appointed coach Custódio.
Defeat for Rúben Amorim’s former side meant he could take advantage in the race for a podium finish, just five games away from the end of the season, with goals from Wendel and Gonzalo Plata securing another positive result for Sporting at the Alvalade on Thursday night, winning 2-1. PortuGOAL has more from Matchday 29.
