Portuguese Football in English
Portuguese manager Vítor Pereira is celebrating after his Shanghai SIPG side claimed their first-ever Chinese CSL title on Wednesday, beating Beijing Renhe 2-1 on an historic day for the club.
Pereira’s men extended their lead at the top of the table over serial champions Guangzhou Evergrande to an emphatic eight points with just one match remaining. For the former Porto boss, the triumph means he has won the national title in three different countries.
Portugal midfielder João Mário was the standout Portuguese performer in Europe this weekend, with Inter’s previously forgotten man scoring his first goal of the season with a brilliant left-footed finish and playing a part in three other goals as the Nerazurri beat Genoa 5-0 in Italy.
Meanwhile, Vítor Pereira stands on the verge of securing Shanghai SIPG’s first-ever Chinese title win, while Paulo Fonseca’s Shakhtar Donetsk beat Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine’s big clash and there were goals for Flávio Paixão, Daniel Candeias, Christian Ponde and Rúben Neves.
Pedro Caixinha is celebrating after marking his first year back in Mexican football by winning the Copa MX Apertura on Wednesday evening. Portuguese coach Caixinha led Cruz Azul to a 2-0 victory over hosts Monterrey to secure the club’s first trophy since 2014.
Elsewhere, there was good news for Rony Lopes and Ricardo Vaz Tê, while André Gomes has been speaking about his strong start in England with Everton, and José Mourinho and Nuno Espírito Santo spoke to the press about their teams.
Renato Sanches appears to finally be putting a testing period in his young career behind him as he enjoys a resurgence at Bayern Munich, and the Portuguese midfielder was singled out for praise this week by teammate Joshua Kimmich.
Elsewhere, Gelson Martins got his name on the scoresheet for the first time in Atletico Madrid colours, while Bernardo Silva, Nuno Espírito Santo and Marco Silva have been in the news in England and Olympiakos boss Pedro Martins has taken a swipe at refereeing in Greece.
Goals were the order of the weekend for the Portuguese Abroad contingent, with Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo leading the way as usual with two for Italian champions Juventus in their victory at Empoli in Serie A on Saturday, including a sensational long-range strike for his second.
Ronaldo was joined in finding the back of the net by youngster Rafael Leão who bagged a winner for Lille on his full debut in France, while there were also goals for compatriots in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Holland, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia, while Portuguese managers enjoyed typically differing fortunes across the world.
