Portuguese Football in English
Fonseca off to a flyer, Dalot back, Eintracht woe
It was a night of mixed fortunes for Portugal’s four participants in the Europa League. Pride of place goes to Braga, who travelled to England and came away with a victory against Wolves thanks to Ricardo Horta’s second-half strike.
A brace from Tiquinho Soares was enough for Porto to see off the challenge of Swiss outfit Young Boys, but Sporting and Vitória Guimarães began their campaign with defeats.
In a transfer window unlike many, a good quantity of the lesser-thought-of Primeira Liga sides were able to fetch themselves their fair share of hype with moves made during the summer.
From the coups of Mehdi Taremi and Lucas Evangelista at Rio Ave and Vitória de Guimarães, respectively, to the arrivals of former flavours of the month, such as Marlos Moreno at Portimonense and Santa Clara’s Lincoln, everything points towards a potentially more competitive Liga NOS season as plenty of teams aim to leave their imprint on proceedings.
Nobody has pushed that boat out quite like Primeira Liga newcomers Famalicão, however, landing a whopping 19 new first-team signings and translating their exciting movements into a thus far unbeaten start to the season, topping the table after five league games.
Champions League matchday one roundupIt was a disappointing start for Portugal’s sole representative in this season’s Champions League as Benfica fell to a 2-1 home defeat against German team RB Leipzig. Two goals by Timo Werner put the Bundesliga outfit in control, Seferovic pulled a goal back, but despite a late rally the Eagles could not find an equaliser.
Meanwhile, like always, a multitude of Portuguese players and managers were aiming to do well for their respective clubs all over Europe. In a largely low-key first matchday for Portuguese abroad, it was Mário Rui, Daniel Podence and João Mário who had most reasons to smile.
Liga NOS returned with a bang after the international break with 34 goals scored in the 9 matches over the weekend. Vitória Setúbal began the gameweek by upsetting Braga, Tondela and Belenenses secured impressive away wins over Rio Ave and Marítimo respectively, while Benfica and Porto kept up the pressure on unlikely leaders Famalicão, whose brilliant start to the season continued as PortuGOAL Figure of the Week Fábio Martins inspired them to victory over Paços Ferreira.
A 98th-minute header from Ivan Marcano gave ten-man F.C. Porto a precious 3-2 victory away to Portimonense, having seen the hosts pull a two-goal-advantage back to 2-2 in the second period and place the two sides on the brink of sharing the spoils.
Porto’s win sees them go level on points with second-placed Benfica after their comfortable 2-0 victory against Gil Vicente on Saturday night, just as Famalicão held firm in first place with a 4-2 win versus Paços de Ferreira.
Elsewhere, Sporting de Braga picked up their third league defeat of the season in Friday’s Matchday 5 opener versus Vitória de Setúbal, losing 1-0, meanwhile Sporting, on Leonel Pontes’ debut as interim manager, closed out the week with a 1-1 draw away to Boavista. PortuGOAL has more from this weekend's action.
