Portuguese Football in English
Santa Clara beat Vizela 3-1 at a wet and windy Estádio de São Miguel to climb to 10th position in the Primeira Liga. A Bruno Wilson own goal and Crysan strike in the space of two second half minutes was a deserved reflection of their dominance.
Kennedy Boateng got caught on the ball which allowed Kiko Bondoso to give Vizela a chance late on, but a quick free kick caught the visitors out with Rui Costa sealing the deal in the 90th minute.
Sporting returned to winning ways in the Primeira Liga after an Islam Slimani brace rubber-stamped a 2-0 victory against Arouca at the Alvalade.
The Lions made a series of fruitless changes to the XI coming into the encounter before a big outing in the second period, spearheaded by the goal-scoring Slimani, saw the hosts apply pressure on league leaders FC Porto, in action tomorrow evening.
There was also a win in the works for Benfica in their chase for second place, conquering Portimonense away from home after having to come from a goal down to defeat the Southern outfit 2-1.
The first leg of the Portuguese Cup semi-finals were played this midweek.
Porto beat Sporting 2-1 at Alvalade on Wednesday night, while on Thursday Tondela all but booked their place at Jamor thanks to a 3-0 victory over Mafra.
PortuGOAL rounds up the action with video highlights.
Only ten rounds of matches remain of the 2021/22 Liga Bwin season after Jornada 24 concluded with Braga and Santa Clara’s 0-0 draw yesterday evening.
Porto and Sporting both dropped points in the title race, allowing Benfica to gain some ground with a comfortable win over Vitória Guimarães.
The match of the weekend took place at Estoril as Boavista came away victorious in a 3-2 thriller. Their hero on the day was the unlikely source of centre-back Rodrigo Abascal, who is our PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.
FC Porto have failed to increase their advantage at the top of the Primeira Liga table after being forced to share the spoils at home to ten-man Gil Vicente in a 1-1 showdown, this Sunday.
The visitors had a man red carded just three minutes into the encounter but found themselves a goal up, nevertheless, through key man Fran Navarro.
Porto equalised soon after in the second half via Evanilson’s tap-in, but the inability to follow up the Brazilian’s effort meant the Dragons could only maintain their six-point advantage over second-placed Sporting.
Elsewhere, there was an important win registered by Benfica, at home to Vitória de Guimarães, as a goal from Gonçalo Ramos and a Darwin Nuñez brace gave the Eagles a 3-0 victory, leaving them just four points behind second place.
