Braga, Belenenses & Sporting all win

It was a perfect night for Portuguese football in the Europa League. 

Sporting dispatched Albanian outfit Skenderbeu 5-1 at the Alvalade, despite coach Jorge Jesus selecting a second-string team, while on an emotional night in Braga the hosts won a thrilling game 3-2 against French side Marseille. 

The result of the night however was obtained by Belenenses, who against all expectations came from behind to beat Basel 2-1 in Switzerland. 

Galatasaray 2-1 Benfica

Matchday 3 in the Champions League saw Benfica travel to Istanbul to take on Turkish giants, Galatasaray. Rui Vitória’s side topped Group C going into this game, with maximum points from a home fixture with Astana and a trip to Madrid to take on Atletico.

A 4-4-2 system was named with Sílvio continuing at right-back in place of the injured Nélson Semedo. Up front, Raúl Jiménez started alongside Jonas in place of Kostas Mitroglou who dropped to the bench.

Sporting and Belenenses fight to survive

Paulo Fonseca’s high-flying Braga receive Marseille at the Quarry tomorrow knowing a win will all but secure progress to the knockout stages of the Europa League.

Elsewhere Belenenses travel to Switzerland to take on Basel and Sporting host Albanian outfit Skenderbeu. Both Portuguese sides need a positive result to keep their chances alive of staying in the competition beyond Christmas.

With the aid of Europe-wide football experts, PortuGOAL analyses tomorrow’s Europa League opponents of Portuguese trio of representatives in the competition.

FC Porto 2-0 Maccabi Tel Aviv

First-half goals from Vincent Aboubakar and Yacine Brahimi gave Porto a comfortable 2-0 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Estádio do Dragão tonight.

With Dynamo Kiev and Chelsea playing out a goalless draw in Ukraine in the other game in the section, the Dragons go top of Group G and look well set to make the knockout stage, quite possibly as group winners.

A satisfactory night all-round for the hosts was completed by the fact Rúben Neves made history by becoming the youngest ever player to captain his team in a Champions League game at 18 years, 7 months and 7 days. Neves duly showed why he has earned such status, putting in his usual calm and assured performance way beyond what one could reasonably expect from a player of his age.