Portuguese Football in English
English football fans are well-familiar with Eric Dier, who is often described by both fans and football experts as a ‘utility man’ on the football pitch.
Now, if it was anyone else other than Eric Dier, that would not sound like a compliment, but anybody who has ever seen him play knows how accurate this description really is. He can cover multiple positions, which is a rare feat nowadays among elite-level football players.
Sporting Braga continued their strong start to the season with a 5-0 win against Marítimo at the Quarry.
Artur Jorge’s side started strong with Vitinha opening the scoring in the 9th minute and Iuri Medeiros extending the lead on the stroke of half time.
Artur Jorge’s side maintained their dominance in the second half, Simon Banza continuing his fine form before substitutes Abel Ruiz and Rodrigo Gomes sealed the deal.
Porto defeated Sporting CP 3-0 in the first Clássico of the fledgling Primeira Liga season. Hidemasa Morita hit the post for the visitors early on, chances hard to come by before Evanilson was gifted the opening goal in the 42nd minute.
The Lions went close on the stroke of half time, their chances dealt a big blow in the 75th minute when Pedro Porro was sent off for imitating a goalkeeper. Mateus Uribe and Galeno converted penalties to seal the deal, Sérgio Conceição’s side striking the first blow in the title race.
PortuGOAL’s Matthew Marshall reports from Estádio do Dragão.
A balmy evening as you’d expect in August on the Lisbon coast, a jovial crowd with a fair splattering of curious tourists and two middle-ranked Portuguese top-flight teams proved ingredients for an extremely entertaining evening at the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota tonight, as Estoril and Rio Ave played out an exciting 2-2 draw.
Gil Vicente suffered a 4-0 defeat against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa Conference League play-off first leg. The Gilistas were 1-0 down with 15 minutes remaining before a late capitulation virtually ended their chances in the tie.
Dani de Wit’s firm header gave AZ a deserved half-time lead with Mayckel Lahdo, Vangelis Pavlidis and Mees de Wit completing the rout late on.
Ivo Vieira’s side never looked like scoring in the Netherlands and have next to no chance of overturning the deficit in Barcelos next week.
