Preview of two mouth-watering Primeira Liga clashes

Last week was livened up by the Final Four of the Taça da Liga, with plenty of excitement and controversy as Portugal’s top four teams slugged it out for the first piece of silverware of the season. This weekend the fixture list has thrown up two more appetising matches as four of the top five teams in the Liga NOS go head to head on Sunday.

Sporting host Benfica in the Portuguese capital before leaders FC Porto make the short trip to northern rivals Vitória Guimarães, with the two matches potentially having a big effect on the title race. Wins for Sporting and Porto, for example, will leave the Dragons odds-on to finish top of the pile, but should Benfica and Vitória prevail, the fight to be crowned champions of Portugal will be blown open between the two perennial rivals, with Braga also very much in the running.

The good news for UK viewers is that both matches are being broadcast live on FreeSportsTV on Sunday. Here’s PortuGOAL’s preview of two games that promise fireworks. 

A series of early week Liga NOS matches followed the conclusion of this season’s Taça da Liga, and it was a round in which the participants of Saturday night’s final experienced contrasting emotions: Porto bounced back from defeat to maintain their lead at the top but victors Sporting had to settle for a point away at Vitória Setúbal.

Aves, Chaves and Rio Ave all picked up very important wins away from home also, but the most eye-catching scoreline came at Estádio da Luz as Benfica blew away Boavista 5-1, in no small part due to another sparkling performance from the hugely promising youngster João Félix.

The highly rated teenager is PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week.

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

FC Porto have tightened their grip on the top of the table after returning to winning ways with a 3-0 victory at home to Belenenses. The Dragons’ victory followed the triumphs of second-placed Benfica, dismantling Boavista 5-1 at home, and Sporting de Braga, who claimed all three points with a slender 1-0 win over Santa Clara.

Unlike their competitors, recently-crowned League Cup champions Sporting were unable to keep apace with the rest after drawing 1-1 away to Vitória de Setúbal, having played out much of the second half down to 10 men. As always, PortuGOAL is here to provide the best of the action.

• Taça da Liga
• Sporting CP
• Porto

FC Porto 1-1 Sporting (Sporting win on penalties) 

Renan Ribeiro went from zero to hero once again for Sporting as they edged out FC Porto for the Taça da Liga after a tense game in Braga.

Fernando Andrade looked to have given Porto the trophy when he made the most of Renan’s fumble late in the game but a VAR-assisted Bas Dost penalty took the game to a penalty shootout. Renan’s save from Hernani and Felipe’s miss gave the first silverware of the season to Sporting.