• Benfica
• Rafa Silva
• Julian Weigl
• UEFA Champions League
• PSV Eindhoven
• Cody Gakpo

Benfica 2-1 PSV Eindhoven

Benfica were able to hold onto a first-half advantage to register a 2-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven at the Estádio da Luz, this evening, in their preliminary UEFA Champions League qualifier, leaving the tie wide open ahead of next week's return leg in the Netherlands.

The 'Red & Whites' raced to a two-goal lead in the first period following Rafa Silva's opener and a goal from Julian Weigl to send Benfica into the break with the score at 2-0, despite PSV's best efforts.

A clinical strike from Cody Gakpo for PSV early in the second half rocked the boat for the fatigued hosts, but the Dutch outfit had little else left in their own tank in a bid to restore the balance, leaving business unfinished ahead of the second leg, next week.

The second round of the new Liga Bwin season was an historic one as promoted side Vizela secured the first ever top flight win in their history, dramatically coming from behind to beat Tondela. Boavista and Marítimo also bounced back from opening day defeats to get off the mark, triumphing over Paços Ferreira and Belenenses SAD respectively.

Elsewhere defending champions Sporting continued their 100% start and returned to the summit in doing so thanks to a hard-fought victory over Braga. The Lions’ rivals Benfica kept in touch, comfortably overcoming league new boys Arouca.

Porto also kept up their title credentials with a narrow win against Famalicão, whose former striker Toni Martínez came back to haunt them in devastating fashion, the Spaniard is in focus for this edition of the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.

• Benfica
• Sporting de Braga,
• Famalicao
• Pedro Goncalves
• Toni Martinez
• Roman Yaremchuk
• Arouca

Sporting have followed up their opening-day win against Vizela with a second consecutive victory away to Sporting de Braga, defeating the Arsenalistas 2-1 in this weekend’s main event.

The Lions had their noses in front after Jovane Cabral’s first half breakthrough was later doubled by man-of-the-moment Pedro Gonçalves, treating Rúben Amorim’s men to a 2-0 lead in the first half. A red card for Matheus Reis and Abel Ruiz’s first goal for Braga this season threatened to undo all of that, however, but the title holders held on to win by a slender margin.

Prior to the clash up north, Benfica welcomed Arouca for their first league game at the Estádio da Luz, coasting past the newly-promoted side, who were reduced to ten man early, with a 2-0 victory. The recipe was later copied and pasted by FC Porto on Sunday evening, claiming an important set of three points away to Famalicão with two goals from Toni Martinez in a 2-1 win.

• Benfica
• Jorge Jesus
• Rui Vitoria
• UEFA Champions League
• Joao Mario
• Spartak Moscow
• Roman Yaremchuk

Benfica 2-0 Spartak Moscow

Benfica have made it through to the final round of UEFA Champions League qualifiers after defeating Spartak Moscow 2-0 in the Estádio da Luz’s first game of the season.

The Eagles, leading by 2-0 after the first leg in Russia, grabbed the goal their dominance merited in the second half through João Mário on his home debut, setting them up for a final round of qualifiers versus PSV Eindhoven.

Summer transfer Roman Yaremchuk helped confirm Benfica's passage to the next round with the game's second, courtesy of a huge Samuel Gigot deflection, to make it 4-0 on aggregate.