Portuguese Football in English
Portuguese boss Marco Silva will be back in the Premier League next season after his Fulham side clinched promotion from the Championship on Tuesday night with victory over Preston North End.
The Cottagers have been outstanding in the English second tier this season with a free-flowing attacking style, and a 3-0 win at home over Preston means Silva’s side assured themselves of a top-two place with four matches left to spare.
The football season is nearing its end and that means that the crescendo is close. The domestic leagues are reaching their climax, and football lovers all over the world are rubbing their hands in anticipation of the final stages of the European competitions.
Sure, Portuguese clubs are out of the Champions League, Europa League and the Europa Conference League, but there are plenty of Portuguese players who may taste European glory this season.
Cristiano Ronaldo dominates the headlines again in this weekend’s Portuguese Abroad goals round-up, after another hat-trick for Manchester United to secure a much-needed victory over Norwich for the stuttering Red Devils. It is the second time in just over a month that a Ronaldo treble has given United a scarcely-deserved 3-2 victory at Old Trafford.
Elsewhere, Rafael Leão scored the crucial opener as AC Milan kept their Italian title hopes alive with a 2-0 win over Genoa at San Siro. There were also goals in the English Championship for Fulham’s Fabio Carvalho – who is reportedly joining Liverpool in the summer – and Lucas João of Reading, while Xeka got himself on the scoresheet in Ligue 1 with Lille.
Covering the journeys of Portuguese players and coaches in today’s football means following the game in all corners of the world. The exploits of Luso talent on the pitch and in the dugout extends far beyond the brilliance seen weekly in Europe’s major leagues and most visible continental competitions.
There are few major footballing regions where Portugal has not recently made its mark. Yet, amidst the hundreds of exports who take to the pitch each week, there was a certain charm about the story of a Portuguese forward scoring a hat-trick earlier this month for the world’s oldest professional football club.
José Mourinho’s Roma will face off against Leicester City for a place in the Europa Conference League final, after the Italians finally saw off the challenge of Bodo/Glimt and Ricardo Pereira put the Foxes into their first-ever European semi-final.
Mourinho’s Roma hammered their Norwegian nemeses 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico to book their place in the final four, but Leicester’s victory was more dramatic as a late turnaround in the Netherlands against PSV ended with Ricardo’s historic winner.
