Portuguese Football in English
FC Porto began their home match against Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday evening with good possibilities of finishing top of Group G. After an abject display and 2-0 defeat, the Dragons must now win at Chelsea on matchday six to have a realistic chance of remaining in the Champions League beyond Christmas.
Benfica, on the other hand, are celebrating qualification for the knockout stage of Europe's premier club competition for only the third time this century after a 2-2 draw in Kazakhstan against Astana.
Sporting came from behind to beat Benfica in extra time and make progress to the 5th round of the Portuguese Cup in a typically intense Lisbon derby at the Alvalade tonight.
Mitroglou gave Benfica an early lead, with Adrien equalising for the hosts on the stroke of half time.
No more goals were added until near the end of extra time when Islam Slimani continued his knack of striking at the crucial moment, netting what turned out to be the winner in the 112th minute.
Sandwiched between European commitments and the upcoming Seleção matches, all of Portugal's Big Three were in action this Sunday - a rare occurrence in the Liga NOS.
Benfica and FC Porto put in dominant displays to beat Boavista and Vitória Setúbal respectively, both with 2-0 wins at home. Gonçalo Guedes and Carcela scored for Benfica, while for the Dragons Aboubakar and Miguel Layún were on the mark.
Later in the night, for a long time it looked like Sporting would have their lead cut at the top of the table as a well-organised Arouca side kept the Lions at bay. But after Arouca had seen a loud penalty shout turned down and Sporting had been reduced to ten men, Algerian striker Slimani scored a 90th-minute winner to give Jorge Jesus's team all three points.
A fortnight ago all three Portuguese representatives in this season's Europa League won their games, but it was a very different story today.
A disastrous display by Sporting, who were two goals and a man down after just 18 minutes, led to an embarrassing 3-0 defeat against Skenderbeu in Albania.
Belenenses could not repeat their heroics of two weeks ago as they were turned over 2-0 by Basel in the Restelo, while Braga also lost, 1-0 in Marseille.
FC Porto continued their impressive Champions League campaign with a 3-1 victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel on Wednesday night.
Israeli and BBC World Service journalist Raphael Geller was at the match for PortuGOAL and shares his thoughts on Porto’s performance.
