Round 12 of the 2021/22 Liga Bwin season will be remembered for all the wrong reasons after the farcical events of Belenenses SAD vs Benfica but elsewhere there was plenty of entertaining football on display.

Portimonense continued their fine season, consolidating sixth place with a resounding win over Famalicão. Marítimo’s change in coach brought about a similar alteration of their fortunes, gaining only their second victory over the season by defeating Paços Ferreira.

One side that has flown under the radar a little though is newly-promoted Arouca. Armando Evangelista guided his team to their fourth positive result in a row, a last-gasp triumph against Boavista enough to lift them into the top half of the table. Their aforementioned manager is in focus as the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.

• Benfica
• Tondela
• Vitória de Guimarães,
• Luis Diaz
• Belenenses SAD

Sporting and FC Porto have held onto the Primeira Liga top spot after Benfica’s abandoned clash versus the heavily depleted and COVID-hit Belenenses SAD, brought to an end as the Eagles led by 7-0, dominated the headlines.

The spread of COVID in the Belenenses camp forced the Belém outfit to field just nine men, including two goalkeepers, versus Jorge Jesus’ men on Saturday night.

In merciless fashion, Benfica put seven goals past their opponents before half-time with a series of injuries reducing Belenenses’ numbers down to six players, bringing the one-sided game to a premature end.

Sunday night saw goals from Pablo Sarabia and Paulinho ease Sporting’s match-up against Tondela in Lisbon with a 2-0 victory before Porto matched their title rivals with a 2-1 win against Vitória at home.

In less than two years as a top-flight head coach Rúben Amorim has won the league cup at Braga, led Sporting to their first championship triumph in 19 years (in addition to winning the league cup again) and has now steered the Lions into the Champions League last 16 for only the second time in the club’s history.

When you factor in the tumultuous situation in which the Lisbon club were mired when Amorim was recruited, his achievements are nothing short of miraculous. PortuGOAL profiles Portuguese football’s man of the moment. 

• Ruben Amorim
• Pedro Porro
• Pedro Goncalves
• Borussia Dortmund
• Liverpool
• Emre Can
• Mohamed Salah

Sporting have made it into the round of Last 16 of the UEFA Champions League after defeating ten-man Borussia Dortmund 3-1 at the Alvalade.

The Lions cruised into half-time with a two-goal lead, courtesy of a Pedro Gonçalves double before a straight red card from Emre Can set the hosts on their way through for the first time in 13 years, defeating the Germans 3-1 in Lisbon.

FC Porto will have to wait to find out their fate, however, as a 2-0 defeat left the Dragons stuck on five points in second place, with an AC Milan win against Atlético Madrid leaving qualification from Group B on a knife edge for the three sides trailing first-placed Liverpool.