Due to the Taça de Portugal interlude, avid followers of the Liga NOS were made to wait an extra week for their weekly fix of Primeira Liga football, with the calling coming for Sporting first in a game versus an infamously rigid Tondela side prior to FC Porto’s home clash against Arouca on Saturday night.

With an eye on proceedings, the baton would then be passed onto Benfica, sitting pretty at the top of the league and with a Lisbon derby awaiting them at the Estádio do Restelo versus Belenenses.

A mere three points separated the traditional frontrunners for the title, leaving the prospect for any of the three to be top of the pile come the end of Week 8 running wild.

Here’s how the action unfolded.

FC Porto and Benfica clocked up crucial wins on the road in Belgium and Ukraine respectively to put themselves back in with a chance of qualification for the knockout stage of the Champions League.

Sporting fell to defeat at home to Borussia Dortmund and now look certain to be playing Europa League football after Christmas.

Elsewhere Bernardo Silva scored for Monaco, while Portugal duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma, both scorers in the last round of Champions League matches, turned providers with two assists each for Real Madrid and Besiktas.

Portugal’s trio of Champions League participants have had a largely disappointing European campaign so far, but this week all three teams have the chance to get right back in the running for qualification to the knockout phase.

Benfica and FC Porto travel to Ukraine and Belgium respectively to take on opponents who have one and zero points respectively, while Sporting have a crunch match at Alvalade against an injury-weakened Borussia Dortmund.

Everyone knows just how beneficial a loan can be for a young footballer’s career. The three biggest teams in Portugal tend to have a long list of talents playing in other colours season after season.

João Mário just got a millionaire transfer, while Adrien and William are key in the Sporting eleven, all of whom are great examples of players who had loan experiences that helped them grow, mentally and technically.

PortuGOAL takes a look at this year’s loanees from the Big Three, how they’re doing and what chances they have of coming back to the club they’re legally contracted to.

This last factor will be evaluated from 1-10, with a 10 rating meaning the player in question is extremely likely to play for his parent club again, and 1 extremely unlikely.