Portuguese Football in English
Jorge Manuel Rebelo Fernandes, known in the football world as Silas, has been appointed coach of Sporting Clube de Portugal, replacing interim manager Leonel Pontes.
Silas, 43 years old, whose first managerial position was as coach of Belenenses SAD last season, becomes the fifth different coach to take charge of the troubled Lisbon club’s first team in less than a year. He has been given a contract until the end of the season with an option for an additional year.
Week 6 of Liga NOS saw Famalicão’s fairytale story continue with a late win at Sporting, while Porto and Benfica remained in hot pursuit with victories of their own.
Braga’s struggles in the league continued, and newly-promoted Paços Ferreira got off the mark with a win over fellow strugglers Aves.
One side who have been quietly improving though is Vitória Guimarães, who after a slow start have crept up the table into 6th place after a 3-1 win at Tondela. Midfielder Lucas Evangelista played a key role in Sunday’s win and is PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week.
A late Sebastián Coates own goal continued Famalicão’s dream start to the season as the promoted side secured a comeback win to stay top of Liga NOS, winning 2-1 away at Sporting, who drop to 7th.
Porto and Benfica had previously overtaken Famalicao with victories of their own, the former comfortably defeating Santa Clara while the latter left it very late to nick a win away at Moreirense.
Elsewhere Braga’s domestic woes continued as a 2-2 home draw with Marítimo keeps them just 1 place above the relegation zone after 6 league matches.
Fonseca off to a flyer, Dalot back, Eintracht woe
It was a night of mixed fortunes for Portugal’s four participants in the Europa League. Pride of place goes to Braga, who travelled to England and came away with a victory against Wolves thanks to Ricardo Horta’s second-half strike.
A brace from Tiquinho Soares was enough for Porto to see off the challenge of Swiss outfit Young Boys, but Sporting and Vitória Guimarães began their campaign with defeats.
In a transfer window unlike many, a good quantity of the lesser-thought-of Primeira Liga sides were able to fetch themselves their fair share of hype with moves made during the summer.
From the coups of Mehdi Taremi and Lucas Evangelista at Rio Ave and Vitória de Guimarães, respectively, to the arrivals of former flavours of the month, such as Marlos Moreno at Portimonense and Santa Clara’s Lincoln, everything points towards a potentially more competitive Liga NOS season as plenty of teams aim to leave their imprint on proceedings.
Nobody has pushed that boat out quite like Primeira Liga newcomers Famalicão, however, landing a whopping 19 new first-team signings and translating their exciting movements into a thus far unbeaten start to the season, topping the table after five league games.
