With the task of defeating Académica in the hotly contested Liga NOS sandwiched between two heavyweight ties against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League, ‘respite’ is a word that won’t be entering Benfica’s vocabulary so soon.

Hot on their heels are 2nd placed Sporting, who welcomed Marítimo to Lisbon, meanwhile FC Porto looked to bounce back from last week’s 1-0 defeat to Tondela with a less than kind journey to the Estádio da Mata Real to face Europa League hopefuls Paços de Ferreira.

PortuGOAL rounds up the top weekend action from Round 29 of the Primeira Liga.

Sporting Braga were defeated 2-1 by Shakhtar Donetsk at the Estádio Municipal de Braga tonight.

Braga’s Europa League campaign appeared over after Yaroslav Rakitskiy scored on the stroke of halftime and Facundo Ferreyra doubled the lead in the second half, but Wilson Eduardo’s late goal gives the Portuguese side a faint hope in the return leg next week.

The hosts began the match in the ascendancy, Andriy Pyatov punching Rafa’s sharp shot away and quality combination play resulting in a Pedro Santos shot well over the bar. Rafa then drove into the box but produced a weak shot at Pyatov as Braga increased their dominance.

Braga attempt to take a step towards the Europa League semi-finals tomorrow as they host Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg at the Quarry.The last time the Arsenalistas faced Ukrainian opposition in the quarter-finals of this competition, in March 2011, they beat Dynamo Kyiv and made it all the way to the final. A good portent?

PortuGOAL talked to Manuel Veth from the excellent Futebolgrad, a website focusing on football throughout the post-Soviet space, to get the lowdown on the Shakhtar.

• Benfica

Benfica travelled to Germany to take on Bayern Munich for the First Leg of the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday night. Fresh from their impressive 5-1 humbling of 4th placed Braga on Friday and, having won their last eight games in all competitions, the Lisbon giants were hoping for a sound performance at the Allianz Arena. And with a return leg to take place at the Estádio da Luz next week, there was much to be had for Benfica if they could keep it tight.

Rui Vitória named an attack-minded line-up for this game, keeping faith with the starting XI which beat Braga. Jonas partnered Kostas Mitroglou up top while Renato Sanches and Ljubomir Fejsa would occupy the central midfield. Ederson continued between the sticks in the absence of the injured Júlio César and 21-year-old Swedish international, Victor Lindelöf, continued to partner Jardel in the centre of defence. It was left to Eliseu and André Almeida to attempt to nullify the wide threat.