Portuguese Football in English
Braga 1-0 Rangers
Braga again showed they are a team to reckoned with on the continental stage with a vibrant and mature performance at the Quarry to win the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Rangers.
A first-half goal by Abel Ruiz proved the difference after 90 minutes, with Braga unable to turn their dominance for much of the game into further goals. It sets up a mouth-watering return match in Scotland next week.
Benfica 1-3 Liverpool
An entertaining night at the Estádio da Luz saw Liverpool overcome Benfica 3-1 to put themselves in a strong position to make the last four of this season's Champions League.
The English side dominated the first half and were good value for their 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Konaté and Sadio Mané. But Benfica came out all guns blazing after the break, pulled a goal back through Darwin Núñez and several times came close to drawing level.
The equaliser did not come, however, and a late Luis Díaz goal all but sealed the tie for Liverpool.
Only six rounds of games remain of the 2021/22 Liga Bwin season, the 28th Jornada seeing top two sides Porto and Sporting pull further away from the pack with comfortable wins over Santa Clara and Paços Ferreira respectively.
Benfica lost ground in the title race by losing a thriller against Braga on Friday evening, whilst the latter’s Minho rivals Vitória Guimarães kept their faint top five hopes alive by beating Moreirense.
The relegation battle heated up with a number of the sides in the bottom half of the table all registering victories, one of which being Arouca who arguably secured the result of the weekend by overcoming a strong Gil Vicente thanks to two goals from their Brazilian striker André Silva, who is our nomination for the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.
FC Porto 3-0 Santa Clara
Porto took a step closer to winning the Primeira Liga with a dominant 3-0 win at the Estádio do Dragão last night.
Two first-half goals by Fábio Vieira set the Dragons on their way, with Zaidu Sanusi putting the icing on the cake late on.
Sporting have gone nine points clear of third-placed Benfica after a 2-0 win at home to Paços de Ferreira, this Sunday night, applying pressure on table-topping FC Porto.
The Eagles opened up the avenue for Sporting to extend their lead over them after falling to a 3-2 defeat against Sporting de Braga on Friday night, in a game won by the on-form Vitinha.
Rúben Amorim’s men followed up their city rival’s slip-up with a routine victory 2-0 at the Alvalade, secured by Pablo Sarabia and Nuno Santos on the eve of Porto’s clash against Santa Clara.
