Portuguese Football in English
Not many clubs in Europe have a stronger academy than Sporting Clube de Portugal.
Throw in an astute scouting operation, and the ingredients are there explaining why the Lisbon Lions manage to successfully combine productive work in the transfer market with maintaining a competitive and strong squad.
PortuGOAL looks back at ten of Sporting’s most notable sales.
A nightmare first 15 minutes in Lisbon tonight saw Benfica concede two penalties and have António Silva sent off, all owing to infantile mistakes.
Nevertheless, trailing by a single goal, 10-man Benfica rallied and created several chances to draw level, only to be let down by more haphazard defending in the second half to allow Salzburg to double their lead.
There was no way back for Benfica, especially given the wonderful performance from Austrian goalkeeper Alexander Schlager, in sharp contrast to a poor display from his opposite number Anatoliy Trubin.
Braga’s UEFA Champions League group stage campaign began with a 2-1 defeat to Napoli at the Quarry.
Victor Osimhen was a constant danger in an exciting first half which ended with Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s added time strike giving Matheus no chance.
Ricardo missed a great chance to equalise after the break, but Braga stayed in the contest and drew level in the 84th minute when Bruma diverted Rodrigo Zalazar’s cross past Alex Meret.
The Warriors couldn’t hold on however, José Fonte’s failed clearance resulting in Piotr Zielinski’s cross being turned into his own net by Sikou Niakaté.
Pizzi rattled the woodwork in added time, the Italian champions holding on to take all three points and join Real Madrid at the top of Group C.
Shakhtar Donetsk 1-3 FC Porto
Porto got their Champions League campaign off to a positive start, beating Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 in an open and entertaining game in Hamburg tonight.
Wenderson Galeno was the star of the show, netting twice and assisting Mehdi Taremi in a frantic first half hour of the match, in which all the goals were scored, including an equaliser for the hosts through Kevin Kelsy.
Jornada five arrived in Liga Portugal 2 with the table now starting to take shape.
It is Santa Clara who led the Liga with relative comfort at this early stage of the season, but would they finally be troubled when Penafiel visited the Azores on Saturday?
Elsewhere, AVS aimed to extend their undefeated streak to seven games in all competitions when they faced off against the Liga’s bottom side, winless Länk Vilaverdense.
