Portuguese Football in English
Rayo Vallecano 1-2 Real Betis
Real Betis took a major step towards reaching their first final in 17 years with victory away at Rayo Vallecano in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final on Wednesday evening.
The Andalusian side recovered from going behind after just five minutes to win at Estadio de Vallecas, with Portugal midfielder William Carvalho scoring the crucial second with a piece of brilliance in the second half.
Danilo Pereira is enjoying an impressive run of goalscoring form for Paris Saint-Germain, after scoring twice in their 5-1 victory over Lille in Ligue 1. The Portugal midfielder now has four goals this season, already matching his second-highest career tally, while young left-back Nuno Mendes caught the eye in setting up the opener.
Elsewhere, Diogo Jota and André Silva are also continuing to find the net with reassuring consistency in England and Germany respectively, while there was a debut goal in Croatia for on-loan Benfica defender Ferro. In Poland, João Amaral struck twice for Lech Poznan as they played out a six-goal thriller with Cracovia.
Manchester City beat Championship leaders Fulham 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium this weekend, but there was plenty of positive from the FA Cup meeting from a Portuguese perspective.
Portugal-born midfielder Fabio Carvalho gave the Cottagers a shock early lead, while the match was also notable for Pep Guardiola expressing his admiration for Fulham’s coach Marco Silva.
Cameroon 0-0 Egypt (aet)
(Egypt win 3-1 on pens)
Carlos Queiroz will contest the African Cup of Nations final on Sunday after his Egyptian side beat host nation Cameroon on penalties in Yaoundé on Thursday evening.
Veteran coach Queiroz was sent off during the closing moments of normal time, leading to him to launch a verbal attack on referee Bakary Gassama after the match. Meanwhile, there was a dignified reaction from losing boss Toni Conceição who admitted his side struggled to match their opponents during the latter stages of the contest.
While the end of the European winter transfer window closed without much high-profile action involving Portuguese abroad, there was inevitably a sizeable group of Luso players embarking on new adventures across the continent.
We round up all the moves concerning foreign-based players across the last few days of the January market, which included Jovane Cabral leaving Sporting for an exciting new start with Lazio. There was disappointment, however, for Portugal-born youngster Fabio Carvalho, who will have to wait to finalise his move to Liverpool after the Reds failed to beat the deadline.
