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Benfica continue to benefit from the feel-good factor under interim coach Bruno Lage.
The Eagles comfortably saw off Santa Clara, winning 2-0 in the Azores and moving up to second in the standings after Braga became the latest top side to drop points against Portimonense in the Algarve, a 1-1 draw enough for the Arsenalistas to drop down to third.
PortuGOAL reports on the action and brings you the highlights from the Algarve and the Azores.
This weekend the Primeira Liga reaches the exact halfway stage, and the standout fixture takes place in the Portuguese capital on Saturday afternoon as Sporting Clube de Portugal host FC Porto.
A win for the visitors will almost certainly extinguish Sporting’s hopes of ending their long barren spell without winning the league for another year, while simultaneously putting the Dragons in a strong position to retain their Portuguese championship title.
PortuGOAL previews the clash of the titans at Alvalade.
Portugal centre-back Pepe has returned to FC Porto, signing a contract until 2021 at the Estádio do Dragão. The 35-year-old won two championship titles, an Intercontinental Cup, a Portuguese Cup and two Super Cups in his first spell at the club, before moving to Real Madrid for €30 million euros.
“It’s an emotional moment,” said the Euro 2016 winner. “It’s a privilege to wear the shirt of a club that gave me everything, that launched me in the football world. I’m happy to return and will give my all like I always did for this club, which means so much to me.”
Week 16 of Liga NOS produced some interesting encounters as Porto continued their remarkable winning streak with victory over Nacional, Benfica came from two goals down to defeat Rio Ave and Belenenses and Moreirense each picked up valuable wins to maintain their fine runs of form.
The shock result of the weekend came last night though as Marcel Keizer’s Sporting fell to defeat against a Tondela side that have massively improved of late. Striker António Tomané was instrumental in taking down the Lions and he is PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week.
FC Porto have pulled six points clear at the top of the Primeira Liga table after Tondela produced the upset of Matchday 16 with a 2-1 win against Sporting, formerly in second place.
The Lions’ second consecutive away defeat saw them concede ground to the Liga NOS holders, who in response were able to dispatch Nacional with a 3-1 win at the Estádio do Dragão and extend their record winning run to an 18th victory in a row in all competitions.
Elsewhere, there was a win for manager-less Benfica, under Bruno Lage’s supervision, after coming back from two goals down to defeat Rio Ave 4-2, meanwhile Sporting de Braga skipped past Boavista with a 1-0 victory to climb back up to second place. PortuGOAL brings you up to speed with that latest in Primeira Liga action.
