In the third of PortuGOAL’s “team of the decade” series, Pedro Taveira (@ppaodemonio), brings us Sporting’s finest XI selected from players who represented the Lisbon club in the 2010s.

As the graphic to the right shows, although Sporting has struggled to put together consistently competitive teams in the past decade, it is not through any shortage of top-quality footballers at Alvalade in that time.

Indeed, four of the SCP team of the decade played a major role in helping Portugal lift its inaugural piece of major silverware, at Euro 2016. Take it away Pedro. 

In part two of PortuGOAL’s “team of the decade” series, Marco Lopes (@FootyML) turns the spotlight on Benfica.

Having won the Portuguese Primeira Liga in 5 of the 9 championships contested so far this decade, there are no shortage of candidates for each position.

Each player’s selection is justified, followed by honourable mentions listing those who narrowly missed out.

Interestingly, although Benfica have dominated the second half of the decade, Marco’s picks include several names from the first half of the 2010s. 

Has he got it right?

AVB vintage dominates Dragons XI

In the first of a series of “team of the decade” articles, PortuGOAL focuses on FC Porto with the aid of the excellent FCPortoGlobal twitter account, run by Simon de Sousa.

For the majority of the XI, Simon turns the clock back to the start of the decade, when the Dragons ruled the roost in Portugal, in particular the brilliant team coached by André Villas-Boas which played dazzling football both at home and abroad.

Stay tuned for Benfica, Sporting, Primeira Liga and Seleção team-of-the-decade articles in the coming days. Over to you Simon. 

Refereeing controversies hit the headlines

The semi-final line-up of the Allianz Cup (Portuguese League Cup) was defined this weekend as the group phase of the competition reached its culmination.

Holders Sporting overcame the odds to top their section and qualify, while as expected, Vitória de Guimarães, Braga and FC Porto got the results they needed to top their respective groups and make the Final Four stage of the competition, to be held in Braga from 21-25 January.