Benfica’s “difficult” relationship with the Champions League played out another sorry chapter in France on Tuesday as the Portuguese champions were beaten 3-1 by Lyon to all but end hopes of progress in this year’s competition. A 13th defeat in Benfica’s last 17 Champions League matches has again led to uncomfortable questions about why the Eagles cannot compete in Europe.

Elsewhere, Olympiacos goalkeeper José Sá was arguably the outstanding Portuguese player of matchday 4 despite his team going down 2-0 to Bayern Munich, but there was better news for Shakhtar Donetsk’s Portuguese coach Luís Castro as his side scored two stoppage goals for a dramatic 3-3 draw in Croatia against Zagreb to give the Ukrainians a good chance of making the knockout stage. PortuGOAL rounds up all the Champions League action from the Portuguese perspective. 

There was not a lot in Jornada 10 of Liga NOS as it gave way to a number of narrow victories and tight draws. Benfica maintained top spot by beating Rio Ave, Porto edged strugglers Aves while Famalicão lost ground in the leadership race but gained an admirable point at Braga, and Sporting’s problems reappeared in defeat at Tondela.

Vitória Setúbal quite remarkably made their way up to 11th in the league table despite only scoring their 3rd goal of the season against Boavista. Their ascent has largely been down to the form of Giorgi Makaridze between the sticks, and he put in another excellent performance in Monday’s victory to be crowned the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.

• Benfica
• Primeira Liga,
• Liga NOS,
• Sporting,
• FC Porto,
• Sporting de Braga,
• Famalicao

Sporting have picked up their third Primeira Liga loss of the season in a 1-0 defeat away to Tondela, falling further behind league-leaders Benfica and second-placed FC Porto.

The Eagles opened the week up with a 2-0 win at home to Rio Ave before Sporting slipped up on the road to a late Bruno Wilson goal, earning Tondela their first home win of the season.

Porto followed the Lions to deal Desportivo das Aves a 1-0 result of their own at the Estádio do Dragão, whereas ten-man Famalicão were able to avoid a second defeat of the season with a late equaliser away to Sporting de Braga, sharing the spoils with a 2-2 draw on Sunday night. PortuGOAL brings you the pick of this weekend’s action.

Week 9 was a notable one as the vast majority of matches took place in midweek, Wednesday and Thursday giving stage to a number of results that shook the Liga NOS table up.

Famalicao returned to winning ways after their previous defeat to Porto, who in turn let top spot slip with a draw away at Marítimo. Sporting’s mini-renaissance continued with a hard-fought win at Paços, while Boavista’s impressive unbeaten run went on with triumph over Braga.

One of the biggest winners of the round though were defending champions Benfica, who returned to the summit after thrashing Portimonense 4-0. PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week is striker Carlos Vinícius, whose two goals put the icing on the cake at Estádio da Luz.