The night José Peseiro’s Liedson-inspired Lions put Boavista to the sword

Between Laszlo Boloni’s record-breaking 2001/02 season – when the Lions did the double – and Ruben Amorim’s first title win, Sporting spent almost two decades watching how their two big rivals, Porto and Benfica, wrapped up all the honours. On more than one occasion they were close to lifting the trophy but for different reasons always fell short at the decisive moment. Whether it was Bryan Ruiz’s miss that condemned Jorge Jesus’ side in 2015 or some appalling albeit unexpected defeats under Paulo Bento, something was always missing. 

No season was as painful though as the 2004/05 campaign, when the Green and Whites were on the brink of a historic double including European glory and fell short of both counts. Still, during that campaign, the Alvalade side played brilliant football. When they visited the Bessa stadium, Sporting put on a show and they simultaneously destroyed the final Boavista version that had been able to look any of the Big Three eye to eye. 

• Manuel Bento

How can you become one of the best goalkeepers in the world at a height of just 173cm (5’7’’)? Nowadays, when we look at goalkeepers, it’s difficult not to be impressed with the height and size of many of the game’s top players in this position. In a sense, it was always a little bit like that.

That only makes Manuel Bento’s career as an elite footballer even more remarkable. He was smaller than many on-field players, yet few can claim to have been as successful, respected and beloved as the goalkeeper who spent more than a decade at a club where the only option was to win every week. Bento was a symbol of the last golden age of Benfica but also of a Portugal that was changing as a nation. 

Tomorrow evening Vitória host Benfica in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. It is a fixture that always brings back poignant memories of a heartbreaking night in 2004.

It wasn’t the first time it happened but it was the first time everyone saw it live. The moment that scarred an entire generation of football supporters, regardless of what club colours they lived and died for.

The innocent smile before the tragic end. Miklos Fehér was never going to be a massive star, but he was a well-loved player who had cut his teeth in Portuguese football when he was still a teenager.

His tragic death, near the end of the football match that pitched Benfica against Vitória in Guimarães, united a nation in grief and became one of Portugal’s most painful collective memories. 

On Sunday Estrela host Farense in Amadora in a relegation six-pointer. It is a rerun of one of the most unlikely Portuguese Cup finals ever played. PortuGOAL’s resident football historian Miguel Lourenço Pereira takes us on another trip down memory lane.

A second-tier side against a team that had just landed in the top tier. It was the most unexpected Portuguese Cup final you could imagine, and you got two for the price of one! 

In 1989/90 Portuguese football went nuts as the Big Three and the usual contenders to win the Cup were sent home one by one. On the day of the final, the Jamor stadium became the stage for a showdown between newcomers Estrela da Amadora and the Algarve’s most successful side, Sporting Clube Farense. A tie so tight that it needed a replay to separate the teams. A feast for those who particularly enjoy placing themselves against all that modern football stands for.