With football collectively awakening from its enforced slumber and several competitions being played out to a rightful conclusion, the attention has shifted to the resumption of title races all across Europe.

The focus on that has seen an increased amount of sports betting Colorado with punters trying to predict who will win this season’s Liga NOS. It is a prediction that will only go as far as either Benfica or FC Porto.

Both teams are in action tonight, and are separated by just three points with 6 matches remaining. And once again, these giants of the Portuguese game are straddling the two highest rungs of the Liga ladder, and although this season’s title race looks as if it will go down to the wire, questions regarding the competition’s overall health must be asked. 

There was a local derby flavour to round 28 of this Liga NOS season as Braga overcame bitter rivals Vitória Guimarães in a 3-2 thriller while Sporting beat Belenenses in last night’s Lisbon duel.

The relegation battle heated up as Portimonense’s revival continued in a close match against fellow strugglers Marítimo, while Paços boosted their survival hopes with a third win in four matches.

The biggest story of the week though was the latest twist in the title race. In another derby encounter Porto thrashed Boavista to take advantage of a sensational win for Santa Clara at beleaguered Benfica. PortuGOAL Figure of the Week João Henriques coached his team superbly once again as the islanders’ excellent form continued.

• Primeira Liga,
• Liga NOS,
• Sporting,
• Sporting de Braga,
• Vitória de Guimarães,
• Belenenses
• Jovane Cabral
• Francisco Trincao

A 3-1 win away to Belenenses was enough to keep Sporting in third place after Sporting de Braga came out on top in a five-goal Minhoto Derby thriller, defeating Vitória de Guimarães 3-2 at home on Thursday night.

Wonder-goals from Francisco Trincão and Galeno set Braga on their way back to third place, momentarily, in a must-win clash against rivals Vitória, passing on the pressure to the Lions.

Rúben Amorim’s side replied with a 3-1 victory at the Cidade de Futebol, benefiting from yet another handful of goals from Jovane Cabral to restore a two-point gap between them and fourth place and sum up a third consecutive victory.

Sporting centre-back Jérémy Mathieu has announced his retirement. The 36-year-old Frenchman picked up a knee injury in training this week and quickly decided to bring the curtain down on his career.

“It’s tough saying goodbye like this. I wanted to play one last game at home. But well, life goes on,” the defender told his teammates in an emotive video released by the Lisbon club (see below). “It was a pleasure to wear this shirt.”