Week Three proved a tough round for Primeira Liga hosts as it was largely away day joy across the board, including Porto triumphing over Benfica in the clássico. Sporting won at Portimonense, while Tondela got their first victory of the season by defeating Marítimo.
The only side to win at home in fact was Rio Ave, and they did so extremely convincingly after thrashing Aves 5-1. The star man, and PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week, was Iranian forward Mehdi Taremi, who blew away the opposition with a superb hat-trick.
Sporting claimed its first set of consecutive victories with a 3-1 away triumph against Portimonense, this Sunday, capitalising on Benfica’s 2-0 defeat to FC Porto in Saturday’s ‘Clássico’ to rise above both rivals and top the Primeira Liga table, alongside Famalicão.
Porto gave the fledgling Liga NOS title race a shot in the arm with a superb 2-0 win over arch rivals Benfica at Estádio da Luz. 
Minho rivals Braga and Vitória Guimarães both gained a slight advantage after the first legs of their playoff ties. Sá Pinto’s Braga put in a controlled performance against Russian big guns Spartak Moscow and were good value for a 1-0 victory at the Quarry thanks to Ricardo Horta’s second-half strike, while Vitória will be satisfied to come back from Romania with a goalless draw against FCSB.
Benfica welcome arch rivals Porto to the Estádio da Luz in the Portuguese capital on Saturday evening with an eye on further cementing their current domination of domestic football.