• Benfica
• Primeira Liga,
• Liga NOS,
• Sporting,
• FC Porto,
• Sporting de Braga,

Sporting have claimed their first win of the 2019/20 season after defeating competitive rivals Sporting de Braga 2-1 at the Alvalade on Sunday.

The Lions, previously winless throughout pre-season, on top of their opening couple of fixtures in the new campaign, got the goals in early in the encounter before fighting tooth and nail in the second half to keep their lead intact, as previously undefeated Braga failed to nick a point in the closing stages from a goal behind.

Across Lisbon, Benfica were on hand to make it two wins from two games against Belenenses before next week’s Clássico against FC Porto, defeating the side formerly based in Restelo 2-0 away from home at Jamor.

Porto were able to bounce back from their poor start to the season some hours later with a 4-0 victory at home to Vitória de Setúbal, as Zé Luis starred with a hat-trick at the Estádio do Dragão. PortuGOAL has all the goals from the top matches of Matchday Two of the Primeira Liga.

After the long summer hiatus, the Primeira Liga finally returned last weekend with a full fixture list as the new season got underway.

Sporting and Braga experienced different starts to the new domestic campaign, but the second week offers an immediate chance to change that as the two teams meet on Sunday evening at Alvalade in Lisbon.

Let’s look at the predictions for the match from 22bet.co.uk - sports betting site.  

• FC Porto,
• Sporting de Braga,
• Vitória de Guimarães,

There was a mix of emotions but plenty of goals for Portugal’s club sides in Europe this week. Porto suffered a humbling 3-2 defeat to Krasnodar and drop from the Champions League to the Europa League for the first time in ten years. Further north, Braga and Guimarães both secured their places in the Europa League play-off round with aplomb. 

Guimarães won 6-0 at home to Latvian side Ventspils to take their aggregate scoreline to an eye-catching 9-0. They have sterner opposition next facing Romania’s FCSB in the next round.

Later Braga beat Brøndby comfortably with a 3-1 victory to make it 7-3 on aggregate. Ricardo Sá Pinto’s team will have a very tough game against Spartak Moscow to ensure their passage to the group stages.

In Portugal Os Três Grandes or “the big three” dominate the sporting headlines and are familiar with football fans all over the world. As a result Porto, Benfica and Sporting’s general publicity, transfer dealings and expectations are fairly well documented but what about the other 15 teams competing in Liga NOS this season?

Here is part 2 of our take on the best of the rest in Portugal (click here for Part 1).