Manchester United have won four Premier League matches in a row for the first time in two years, after comfortably seeing off Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford.
Bruno Fernandes scored the clinching goal from a Diogo Dalot cross to ensure United overcame João Palhinha’s Spurs, who spent most of the match with ten men following captain Cristian Romero’s early sending off.
It has been just over a month since United sacked Portuguese manager Ruben Amorim after a fallout with the club hierarchy. The initial response of the team under caretaker manager Darren Fletcher was to slump to a 2-2 draw with Burnley and an FA Cup defeat at home against Brighton and Hove Albion. However, under interim boss Michael Carrick, the Red Devils have embarked on a tremendous run.
The task to overcome Spurs, who had Palhinha in midfield, was made easier when Romero was given a straight red card on 29 minutes for a clumsy challenge on Casemiro. United then broke the deadlock on 38 minutes with a perfectly-worked corner routine: Fernandes slid the ball to Kobbie Mainoo near the byline for the young midfielder to pick out Bryan Mbeumo, who slotted home.
United rarely gave Spurs much of a sight of goal, but there was clear relief when Fernandes made it 2-0 ten minutes from time. Dalot received the ball on the right flank and delivered a low cross to the back post, which was met by the United skipper’s precise finish into the far corner to maintain Fernandes’ record of scoring or assisting in all six matches since his return from injury.
Bruno Fernandes’ goal against Tottenham from the stands #MUFC
United remain in 4th place but closed the gap between themselves and Aston Villa to just three points this weekend after the Midlands side dropped points. Having defeated Manchester City, Arsenal and Marco Silva’s Fulham already, the three points against Spurs continues Carrick’s 100% record in his second interim stint in charge.
“We’ve had moments where it’s not great and it still [today] was like that,” Fernandes told TNT Sports after the match. “Obviously not at the end of the game and obviously the energy is different now because we’re winning games. When you win games, everything looks brighter. We’re very happy ourselves and also to give this to the fans.
“How have things changed so quickly under Carrick? This is football and football changes from one game to another. Michael came in with the right ideas of giving the players some responsibility but also the freedom to take decisions on the pitch which were needed. He’s very good with words.
“I think he still remembers what I told him last time he was manager. I was sure Michael could be a great manager and he’s showing it. We hope we can help him even more, so everyone can see that not just we are good players, that’s why we’re at Man United, but also the staff is very good.
“Helpful that Carrick understands the club? No I think everyone understands the pressure of playing for this club. If you don’t understand you start to understand very quickly, because this is a massive club and everyone knows the expectations around it. So I don’t think that’s changed. But obviously Michael has won everything here and he knows what it means for the club to win.”
United travel to London on Tuesday evening looking to extend their winning run against Nuno Espírito Santo’s relegation battlers West Ham, who this weekend cut the gap between themselves and safety in the Premier League to just three points after a 2-0 win at Burnley.
Vítor Severino has spent over a decade working alongside Luís Castro (Photo: Vítor Silva/Botafogo)
From Ukraine to Qatar, from the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia to Brazil, Vítor Severino has coached in just about every corner in the world over the past seven years, but it was in Portugal where he first came to grips with management.
Born on 16 August, 1983, Vítor Severino grew up in the seaside parish of Ferrel before turning 18 and heading north for Coimbra University, where he graduated with a degree in sports science. Instead of returning home, he started teaching at the academy and coaching high school students and players in Académica de Coimbra’s youth ranks, with the generous support of his parents helping him to pursue his coaching dreams with an unpaid, part-time role. Similarly to others like Michael-John Tate, Severino was able to get his foot in the door with youth football coaching with Académica before eventually getting his big break and making the move to Porto, where he mentored future stars like Diogo Costa, Diogo Dalot, and Rúben Neves across his two years as an assistant coach for Porto’s U-15 and U-17 side. He then departed the Dragão in 2016 and followed outgoing Porto B manager Luís Castro to Rio Ave.
The rest, as they say, is history: Severino has spent the past decade as Castro’s assistant, guiding Rio Ave, Chaves and Vitória to top-six finishes before departing his homeland in 2019 and making the move to Shakhtar Donetsk, where they won the Ukrainian Premier League title in 2019/20. Spells at Qatari side Al-Duhail and Brazilian powerhouse Botafogo would follow before they linked up with Cristiano Ronaldo at Saudi giants Al-Nassr, lasting just over a year before being given the axe. And after a fleeting spell at Emirati outfit Al Wasl, they decided to return to Brazil at the end of 2025 and set up shop in Porto Alegre with Grêmio. PortuGOAL spoke to Severino.
You watched Portugal miss out on quite a few major tournaments as a youngster…fast-forward to today, and they’re one of the most powerful teams in the world. How do you think that growing up amid Portugal’s golden generation helped your own development?
Portugal has a very strong football culture that is born immediately into the children’s homes. I remember growing up at home with my parents, and we talked about football all the time. My father watched football and talked about football, and the only games in the street and at school were football.
It was an era when the Portuguese national team didn’t even participate in World Cups and Euros, and it was normal for my group of friends and me, who grew up with that culture of football and collecting stickers, sticker albums, calendars, and all that football-related stuff, it was normal for us to support another national team. We usually supported Brazil due to the language, proximity, the great players, and the culture itself. I remember watching the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy and the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States and anxiously waiting for the Brazilian team to play, because we really wanted to support a team, and Portugal usually wasn’t there.
After that, Portugal really experienced significant growth in terms of developing young coaching talent and began to have a very strong presence in major tournaments. Today, it’s a powerhouse in world football, a talent factory, and I myself feel proud to have participated, obviously as a small part, but I worked in youth development for many years in Académica and Porto with great players that I see playing for our national team today, like Diogo Dalot, Diogo Costa, Rúben Neves, as well as others who didn’t make it to the national team but who are professionals and play at an elite level.
For me, that’s a source of pride, and I look back on it with great satisfaction because, as a child who started playing football in the street, in a very small environment, I myself wanted to be a football player, but there weren’t as many options as there are today. Playing football itself was a selective process, because there was little space, there were few clubs that offered space to play, but fortunately, children now have space to express themselves and play, and we also know that the processes of player development are asymmetrical. Nowadays, there is room to develop this talent and also to channel it, sometimes, into other sports.
In other words, things are more structured. I’m happy. I was that kid who loved football and played football in the street every day, but I also understood that I wouldn’t be a football player at the level I wanted to be. I was lucky. And it was a coincidence to grow up in an era of great Portuguese coaches, with José Mourinho at the forefront. Mourinho made my generation of coaches believe in ourselves, he motivated us and dismantled the idea that in order to become a top coach, you had to have been an elite football player, and Portugal became even more of a great school, not only for players, but also for coaches.
It’s safe to say that you’ve been joined at the hip with Luís Castro…how exactly did that relationship come about?
As I was rising through the Académica ranks, I met Castro, who was the coach of the Porto B team as well as the general coordinator of the entire academy. There was a colloquium, and the vice president of Académica called me and said: “Look, there’s a UEFA seminar in Madrid. Six Portuguese clubs were invited, including us, and I’d love for you to represent us during those three days in Madrid.” The Federation sent a delegation of Porto, Benfica, Sporting, Braga, Paços de Ferreira, Vitória de Setúbal, and Académica representatives. I don’t know why, but these clubs were chosen based on certain criteria.
We spent three days there in Spain, doing talks, watching training sessions, visiting the Academy of Real Madrid, talking to the coordinators of some clubs, and that’s where I met Castro, who represented the Porto bloc. We exchanged some ideas, shared some reflections on football and training, and then, a few months later, he needed a person and called me, and I accepted. He then called me again when he was going to Porto, even though we weren’t in the same department for two years. He was on the B team, and I was coaching the Under-19s with Antônio Folha, where we were national champions for two years running, another memorable moment for me.
Then Luís said, “Look, I’m leaving Porto, I don’t know if you’re interested or not, but I’m going to Rio Ave. I’m going to restart my career in the Primeira Liga. I want to take someone with me to be my main assistant, and I’d like it to be you. When I heard the invitation, I already knew the answer. I said this is what I want. I’d completed my journey here, now was going to be the assistant of a senior team in the first division. That’s where I really wanted to get to without forcing it.
I was happy at the Porto youth ranks but I had a dream of coaching in the Champions League and facing the best players and the best coaches, reaching the elite level and being able to play in the biggest competitions in the world, and for that, I had to leave. So I accepted and went with him to Rio Ave, and we’ve been together ever since for the past decade, going from three clubs in Portugal, then Ukraine, Qatar, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and now, Brazil again.
You’ve spent the past decade as an assistant coach, but have you ever considered going solo and trying out an experience as a head coach?
I’ve already had real and concrete approaches, including from Brazil and Portugal, but I never thought it was the right timing for various reasons. I want to be a head coach, I have this desire, but I’m not in a hurry, I don’t look at things that way where I have to be at this age, or I have to be this by now, or I’ll do another year or two, and then I’ll go. I don't look at it that way. I like to be happy. I like to feel fulfilled, and I feel good in my role. I have space to work, I know my place in the hierarchy, and I know that one day I’ll have my opportunity to be a head coach. I don't know if I’ll be successful or not, nobody knows that, but I know I’ll have that opportunity. I want to be one, but I don't know when that will be. As long as I feel happy and fulfilled, I can work as an assistant.
If I stop being Luís Castro’s assistant, obviously I’d wager that the next step for me will be to become a head coach, because I’ve been an assistant for many years. I have a very strong relationship with Luís. The last time I got an offer from a club, Luís and I had just left Al-Nassr midway through the season, something that had never happened before, and I spoke to Luís, who always makes me feel comfortable, and who said: “Vitor, it’s your decision. I don’t want you to leave, but whenever you want to, I’ll give you my full support.” I told Luís it wasn’t the time to leave because I wanted to accompany him on his next project, and move on to another challenge. That’s why I don’t make plans. I have this motivation, I know I’ll have this opportunity and I’m looking at it very, very naturally. I don't spend much time thinking about it, honestly.
Real Sociedad learned their opponents in the last four of the Copa del Rey on Friday afternoon, with Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao drawn for the two-legged semi finals later this month.
La Real secured their spot in the semis for the third consecutive season with a 3-2 win at Alaves in midweek. The victory was a big moment in the club’s season and once again Portuguese forward Gonçalo Guedes was a pivotal figure, continuing his highly impressive recent form back in Spanish football.
Guedes scored a crucial equaliser to tie things up at 2-2 on 76 minutes, after Sociedad had trailed 2-1 since the 26th minute. The goal proved the turning point, with Orri Oskarsson scoring the winner just a few minutes later to book his team a place in semis against their regional rivals.
Portugal international Guedes’ goal, which was beautifully finished after a slick team move, comes after he scored in the Basque derby 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao at the weekend. The former Benfica man has now contributed five goal involvements in his last four outings: three goals and two assists across league and cup. For Sociedad, who paid Wolverhampton Wanderers €4m potentially rising to €6m, the transfer is proving a coup.
The first goal contribution in this latest run was perhaps even more memorable. Guedes scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over La Liga champions Barcelona earlier this month at the Anoeta. In total, Guedes has scored 7 goals from his 26 appearances in all competitions, while providing four assists. With a growing influence, the 29-year-old appears to be re-finding his best form in Spain.
The first leg of the semi-finals takes place on Wednesday, with Guedes’ side holding two slight advantages in their quest to reach the final. Sociedad will play the first leg away, followed by the home fixture at the Anoeta next month, while their opponents Athletic Club will also have one day fewer to prepare for the first leg given the layout of the weekend matches in La Liga.
The final of the Copa del Rey will be played on April 18th or 19th at La Cartuja in Seville. The other half of the draw saw Atlético de Madrid paired with João Cancelo’s Barcelona, with the return leg at Camp Nou.
For Guedes, much of the local reporting in San Sebastian has begun to focus on an outside chance of a recall to the Portuguese national team, which he has admitted is a dream ahead of the World Cup. Having rediscovered a confidence lacking since his Valencia days, Seleção boss Roberto Martínez will no doubt be keeping a close eye on one of Spanish football’s in-form players.
Neves will continue in Saudi Arabia (Getty Images)
Portuguese midfielder Rúben Neves has ended speculation over his future by signing a new three-and-a-half-year contract with Saudi Arabian powerhouses Al Hilal.
Neves has been with Al Hilal since the summer of 2023, becoming one of the star players of the Saudi Pro League, but in recent months he has been widely linked with a move back to Europe. However, the former Porto man has now extended his deal in Riyadh until 2029, by which time he will be 32 years old.
The esteem in which Neves is held by his club was clear in the announcement video for his contract extension. From 24 appearances in the league this term, Neves had produced an impressive nine goals and provided six assists, helping Al Hilal to 1st place in the Pro League – one point ahead of Al Nassr of Cristiano Ronaldo, João Félix and Jorge Jesus.
“In the world of art, Mozart composed the greatest symphonies, crafting melodies that gave time its artistic glow,” the Saudi club began in their video confirming the news.
“And in his footsteps, another genius creates symphonies on the field. His passes a perfectly tuned classical melody. His dribbles a masterpiece of creativity. His goals a dramatic symphony that thrills the senses. The match turns into a living orchestra. The genius of Neves shines through every detail.
“The Mozart of football continues to compose his symphony with Al Hilal.”
Neves left Wolverhampton Wanderers after six years with the club receiving similar praise. “No other player has made such an impact on the pitch in gold and black during the last six years having featured more than 250 times in a remarkable period in the club’s history,” Wolves posted after news of his departure was broken in 2023.
Ronaldo's strike is dominating headlines in Saudi Arabia (Getty Images)
Cristiano Ronaldo did not train with Al Nassr on Tuesday, following his decision not to play in the Saudi Arabian team’s clash at Al Riyadh on Monday evening.
The Portugal captain is widely reported to be on strike, albeit Ronaldo has not made any public statements. As the transfer window closed on the evening of the match, further details are emerging explaining the absence of the Saudi Pro League’s most famous and marketable figure.
Various Portuguese sources have offered insight into the Seleção man’s thinking. One significant cause of frustration agreed by all media outlets is the distribution of finances across the league’s biggest teams through the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The PIF, as it is commonly referred to, is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and has provided the budgets for the major clubs.
The unusual arrangement has typically seen each of the country’s four major clubs – Al Nassr, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli – allocated varying degrees of financial clout. Ronaldo’s dissatisfaction with the system has been growing for a while according to Maisfutebol, increased recently after the PIF sold Al Hilal’s operations to wealthy investor Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud.
Al Waleed, who is one of the richest men in the world and a fan of Al Hilal, has ramped up the spending at the club since being granted more involvement. On deadline day, Al Hilal completed the signing of legendary French striker Karim Benzema from Al-Ittihad. Given Al Nassr’s inability to recruit during the January window to close the 1-point gap to Al Hilal at the summit, the situation has angered Ronaldo greatly.
Al Hilal are considered the biggest club in Saudi Arabia and their financial muscle in recent years has been greater than that of Al Nassr and other rivals. Now under the influence of Al Waleed, it is felt by many that Al Hilal are being advantaged in their bid to beat Al Nassr to this season’s league title. While Al Hilal have continued to spend, Al Nassr have seen spending cut amid being put up for sale by the PIF.
Ronaldo pulled out of the trip to Al Riyadh, which Jorge Jesus’ side won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Sadio Mane. The big question hanging over the Pro League is whether the Portuguese will make himself available for Friday’s home match against fellow powerhouses Al-Ittihad, leading to a nervous wait for all involved with promoting the development of football in the country.
Al Nassr boss Jorge Jesus, who previously coached Al Hilal to a league title in 2024, recently stated that his former club benefits from greater leverage behind the scenes. “Al Nassr doesn’t have the political influence that Al Hilal has,” he claimed. Jesus is also thought to be displeased at the transfer window and opted against speaking to the press after Monday’s match.
According to Maisfutebol, Ronaldo’s misgivings are also internal, with conflict inside the Al Nassr set-up. His close friends from his academy days at Sporting, Simão Coutinho (sporting director) and José Semedo (CEO) were both installed at the club at Ronaldo’s request, but according to the publication the pair have been sidelined in terms of meaningful influence.
Ronaldo has made his feelings clear, with his absence doing little to help the image of competition in the country. Some reports have already speculated over a summer move to the United States and MLS. But as Ronaldo prepares to celebrate his 41st birthday, Saudi Arabia waits with bated breath for his return to the field in the Middle East.
