The final round of Liga NOS before the international break saw penalty drama at Estádio José Alvalade as Sporting lost a close encounter with Rio Ave, Porto carried on from last week’s clássico win by beating Vitória Guimarães, while Benfica responded to the aforementioned high profile loss with an important victory over Braga.
However the standout result, and indeed the standout team this season so far, has to be Famalicão. The promoted side have recorded a superb start to the campaign, unbeaten after 4 matches and sitting top of the division. Coach João Pedro Sousa masterminded another triumph this weekend in a 3-2 success at Aves. He is PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week.
Benfica have returned to winning ways in the Primeira Liga after two second-half own goals from the Sporting de Braga backline, alongside a Pizzi brace, enabled the Eagles to secure a 4-0 victory away from home.
Wolves and Olympiakos progress, Abel admits "failure"
The first three rounds of Primeira Liga are over with Sporting and Famalicão as the front-runners – an outcome few would have predicted before the big kick-off. Sporting and Porto were the big winners last weekend, the Lions winning 3-1 against Portimonense in the Algarve to go top and Porto beating Benfica 2-0 in the first clássico of the season in Lisbon. This weekend Portuguese football fans will be looking forward to a series of unpredictable and captivating matches.