Portuguese Football in English
A brace by Brazilian striker Lima gave Benfica a 2-0 victory at the Estádio do Dragão tonight.
In a game of few chances, the visitors took full advantage of their goalscoring opportunities to score a vital victory and open up a six-point lead at the top of the table.
In what was Jorge Jesus's first victory at fierce rivals Porto in the Liga in six attempts, it was a perfect weekend for the Eagles with Vitória Guimarães and Sporting both dropping points at home.
On Sunday night Porto and Benfica meet for the first time this season. As has constantly been the case in recent years in Portugal, the direct confrontation between the two fierce rivals is a clash of huge significance with a potentially decisive bearing on who will end up lifting the Primeira Liga crown.
Porto are at home and are in fine form having won 7 and drawn 2 of their last 9 matches and have yet to taste defeat in the Liga. But reigning champions Benfica are top of the table, defend a three-point lead and are acutely aware that a positive result would be a huge boost to their quest for back-to-back Portuguese Liga triumphs for the first time in three decades.
In short, it could hardly be set up any better. PortuGOAL previews the Clássico.
Sporting were beaten 3-1 by José Mourinho's Chelsea in London tonight, which combined with Schalke's 1-0 victory at Maribor means the Lisbon club failed in their quest to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League for what would have been only the second time in their history.
FC Porto ended a highly positive group stage campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Shakhtar Donetsk thanks to a tremendous late equaliser from Aboubakar to remain unbeaten in this season's competition.
Benfica sent out a 2nd-string team at home to Bayer Leverkusen yesterday, and ironically put in perhaps their best performance in Group C, drawing 0-0 and missing some glaring chances to beat the Germans.
There were no major surprise results in the latest round of Primeira Liga matches. Benfica (home to Belenenses) and Porto (away to Académica) both won 3-0, one week before next Sunday's clash between the two eternal rivals at the Estádio do Dragão.
With Porto's win moving the Dragons up to second and just three points separating the top two, the clássico is set up beautifully.
Sporting climbed two places up to fourth after a 3-1 win at Boavista, taking advantage of the goalless draw between Braga and Guimarães at the Estádio AXA and Belenenses' defeat at Benfica.
Life is usually pretty simple for a football supporter - not easy, mind you, but simple. You love your team. You hate (or at least profoundly dislike) your city rivals and/or archenemies. When your team win, it's one of the best feelings in the world. When they lose, getting to work the next morning seems just a tad harder.
This is one of the reasons why the phenomenon that surrounds Benfica's coach Jorge Jesus is so interesting. Every club - at least in Southern Europe - is subject to these virtually bipolar fans (straying away from the loyal supporters), but the Eagles are a club that seems to be constantly riding a wave of euphoria or experiencing the hardest of crashes with reality. There is hardly ever any in-between. During the same week, it is possible to hear supporters swearing on their mother's grave that Jesus has been the best thing that has happened to Benfica over the past two decades and others who assure their conversational partner that he's only lucky he's had access to such gifted players.
