After weeks of speculation, it’s official. Jorge Jesus, Benfica’s most successful manager of the 21^st century and the man credited with taking the club back to the top of Portuguese football, has been appointed head coach of the Lisbon club for the second time.

Jesus, who turns 66 next week, has left Flamengo after a glorious 13 months in Brazil, winning five trophies with a scintillating style of football. However, the calamitous health situation in Brazil is thought to have been a major factor behind Jesus deciding to return to Portugal, after initially pledging his immediate future to the Mengão. 

Porto were crowned Liga NOS champions at the conclusion of Jornada 32 of 2019/20 in defeating Sporting in Wednesday night’s “clássico”, Benfica’s own victory over Vitória Guimarães not enough to prevent the title heading back north.

That is done and dusted but there remains much to be sorted out in the final matches of the campaign. Famalicão boosted their European hopes this week with a late win over Vitória Setúbal, who as a result plunged further into the relegation battle as well as Tondela, who tasted defeat to Gil Vicente.

One team that has really stirred up the battle to avoid the drop is Portimonense, who looked doomed before the restart but PortuGOAL Figure of the Week Paulo Sérgio has done wonders in charge of the team to give the Algarve side a real fighting chance of staying in the division, and he led them to another crucial win over Boavista on Tuesday evening.

FC Porto’s 2-0 victory over Sporting tonight at the Estádio do Dragão sealed the club’s 29^th Portuguese championship title.

Even most fans of the Blue and Whites would agree this is not a vintage Porto side, but the team have won the most games, lost the least, scored the most goals and conceded the fewest out of all 18 Liga NOS clubs in 2019/20, and with two matches to go they are eight points clear at the top of the table. There can be no doubt Sérgio Conceição’s men are worthy champions.

This season will go down in history, not only because of the unprecedented interruption because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Never before had a team who had been seven points clear at the top of the table at the halfway stage failed to go on to win the title. It happened this season, with Porto taking full advantage of Benfica’s implosion.

Little surprise, therefore, that despite the lack of fans in the stadium to rejoice with the team, the post-match reaction was no less euphoric for it. 

After months of suspension, the world of sports was back for the much-awaited conclusion of the 2019/20 season. And so was the online sports betting business. With the best European football championships back on TV, betters from all across the world went back to their favorite websites to predict the final results of the games of their favorite teams.

Meanwhile, it’s important to keep in mind that many British betters like to take their chances on football championships outside of the UK, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga.