Portuguese Football in English
Porto got their UEFA Europa League campaign back on track at Estádio do Dragão where they produced a deserved 2-0 victory against Midtjylland.
Danny Namaso’s deflected header put them ahead in the first half before Fábio Vieira instigated their second goal in the 56th minute when Pepê’s cross was converted by Samu Aghehowa.
Adam Buksa scored in added time with the goal ruled out by the VAR, the Dragons collecting a vital three points which puts them back into the play-off positions.
We are starting to run out of adjectives to describe Vitória’s European campaign this season. A comprehensive 4-1 win in Switzerland against St. Gallen made it four wins and one draw from their five UEFA Conference League matches to virtually seal the Portuguese team’s automatic qualification to the knockout rounds.
João Mendes, Gustavo Silva, Alberto Baio and Samu Silva scored as Rui Borges’ team outclassed St. Gallen, for whom Kevin Csoboth scored a consolation goal. José Ricardo Leite reports.
Sporting Clube de Braga’s stuttering Europa League campaign suffered another setback as the Portuguese team were well beaten in the Italian capital against Roma.
Cláudio Ranieri’s team have seemingly turned over a new leaf in their volatile 2024/2025 campaign as Braga were dominated in what ended up a slightly flattering 3-0 loss for the visitors. Kevin Fernandes reports.
Benfica were held to a 0-0 draw against Bologna in a frustrating UEFA Champions League encounter at Estádio da Luz.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored from an offside position before the Italian club took control without threatening Anatolii Trubin.
Ángel Di María tested Lukasz Skorupski before the break and Alexander Bah hit the bar from a tight angle, the Eagles going closest to breaking the deadlock in the 65th minute when Skorupski denied Pavlidis.
Di María and Zeki Amdouni had chances in the closing stages but there would be no breakthrough in Lisbon, Benfica sitting 15th on the table with two games remaining.
How does a team go from being unbeatable (17W 1D 0L in 18 games), winning matches at a canter, playing wonderful football to the diametric opposite at the flick of a switch?
Okay, the switch in question has “Ruben Amorim OFF, João Pereira ON” written on it, but even accounting for the sudden loss of their coach, the manner in which the Portuguese champions appear to have forgotten how to play football is truly baffling.
Books may be written on the phenomenon in years to come. For now here is the report after another traumatic night for Sporting in Belgium and an attempt to describe what is going on at the Lisbon club.
