Portuguese Football in English
Abel Ferreira will have the opportunity to defend the Copa Libertadores crown after his Palmeiras side reached the final again thanks to an away goals victory over Atletico Mineiro.
Palmeiras and Atletico played out a goalless draw in the first leg in Sao Paulo, during which former Porto striker Hulk missed a penalty for the visitors, but a 1-1 draw in Belo Horizonte means the South American champions will return to next month’s showpiece in Montevideo.
Having signed as the saviour of a side that was ailing badly, the January 2020 arrival of Bruno Fernandes has been a total game-changer. Since he first donned the red shirt, the Portuguese has set about building his own legend at the club. His outstanding play, not to mention his ludicrous goal returns in his two seasons at the club, has fans salivating. However, the arrival of Jadon Sancho and the return of Cristiano Ronaldo has added a few more thousands onto the wage bill. Some fans, then, were worried.
Would Bruno not be given the pay rise he deserves? And might that lead to rumours of interest from the likes of Real Madrid coming true?
Portugal’s most high-profile coaching exports abroad suffered similarly depressing results on Sunday evening, with Nuno Espírito Santo’s Tottenham Hotspur and José Mourinho’s Roma losing fierce local derbies in London and Rome respectively at the end of the weekend.
There are some positive stories on the Portuguese bosses abroad landscape, however, as Vítor Pereira and Renato Paiva are sitting pretty at the top of the table in Turkey and Ecuador. There was also a remarkable substitute story in Qatar as Luís Castro saw a player score five times after coming off the bench.
There was a special moment for Portuguese youngster Jota on Thursday night as he scored his first goal for Celtic in front of the home supporters at Celtic Park in the Scottish League Cup.
The Benfica loanee, 22, opened the scoring in a 3-0 win over Raith Rovers which saw The Hoops advance to the semi-finals. For Jota, who has already impressed since arriving in Glasgow, a first goal in Celtic colours as he started and finished the move to put Celtic ahead midway through the first half.
Éder is finally back in football after signing a contract with Saudi Arabian side Al-Raed on Thursday after months as a free agent following his departure from Lokomotiv Moscow.
The 33-year-old left Russia at the end of last season after four years in Moscow, and had been linked with a host of clubs particularly in the Middle East and North America.
