Sporting 1-1 Benfica

Benfica took a huge step to beating Porto to the title when Victor Lindelöf’s stunning freekick levelled the score in a scrappy but engrossing Lisbon derby.

Despite all of the unfortunate off-field news in Portugal, it was a game played in a good spirit. It began with an embarrassing Ederson error that led to a penalty scored by Adrien Silva.

Both teams battled hard in midfield but it was the defender whose rocket strike finally broke a resilient Sporting defence at the Alvalade.

Last year Benfica took a massive step towards winning their third consecutive Portuguese title with a 1-0 victory at Alvalade late in the season. One year on, and a repeat result in tomorrow’s Lisbon derby will leave the Eagles on the verge of making it four straight championship triumphs for the first time in their history.

For that reason alone, Sporting would love to get one over their fierce city rivals. Should the home team win, they will cut the gap to Benfica to five points. It still would appear to be an insurmountable deficit to make up considering only four rounds of matches remain after this weekend. Having said that, just a few weeks ago Benfica were 12 points ahead of the Lions…

More realistically, the three points may keep Sporting’s season alive, if only in the fight for the runners-up spot, which brings the prize of automatic qualification for the Champions League.

A succession of deplorable incidents in recent weeks has seen Portuguese club football plunge itself into a toxic bath of violence, hatred and insults, the country’s biggest clubs and their supporters busily trading invective and accusations, the referees fearing for their physical integrity.

PortuGOAL usually focuses on the positive aspects of Portuguese football, and thankfully there are plenty of them to report, but the way the simmering undercurrent of mutual suspicion and animosity has exploded into an atmosphere of open hostility cannot be ignored.

After nine straight fixtures of a top two mirroring act, complications away to Sporting de Braga has seen FC Porto change the scenery in the foot race for the title.

Benfica did their bit early ahead of the Easter weekend with a 3-0 win at home to Marítimo, with Sporting repeating their neighbours’ dosage when visiting Vitória de Setúbal, also on Friday night.

Porto were next on the agenda but, having gone a goal down and veering dangerously close to conceding a second to Braga, a 1-1 draw would be all the Dragons could get from the Estádio Municipal de Braga, subsequently falling three points behind league leaders Benfica.