• Benfica
• Primeira Liga,
• Sporting,
• FC Porto,
• Sporting de Braga,
• Vitória de Guimarães,
• Rio Ave

Ahead of the festive break, the Primeira Liga fixture machine was on hand to dish out the Christmas crackers for us all to tuck into, as the so-called top six battled amongst themselves in the final round of 2018 games.

FC Porto welcomed Rio Ave, momentarily in 10th, to the Estádio do Dragão to kick-off the drama on Sunday afternoon, as they came back from a goal down to defeat the Vilacondenses 2-1.

Benfica passed their test with flying colours against Sporting de Braga, no less, treating their home support to a 6-2 thrashing over the northern outfit before pushing up to second place in the table.

Surrendering the position were third-placed Sporting, who succumbed to their first defeat under Marcel Keizer with a 1-0 loss away to Vitória de Guimarães. Here’s how the action at the top unfolded. 

• Benfica
• Sporting,
• FC Porto,
• Champions League
• Europa League

Portugal’s three biggest teams will be cautiously optimistic about their chances of European progression after today’s Champions League and Europa League draws held in Nyon.

Porto were handed a promising fixture against AS Roma in the Champions League. Benfica will face Galatasaray and Sporting will head to Spain to face Villarreal in the Europa League.

The penultimate Liga NOS weekend before Christmas had a familiar feel to it with the top four again all registering victories to keep the title race tight, while the presence of new manager Tiago Fernandes was unable to prevent the doom and gloom at Chaves as they fell to defeat against a Moreirense side who impressively rise to 8th place.

This edition of Figure of the Week focuses on a player who has quite quietly been establishing himself as one of the deadliest strikers in the division, and indeed Braga’s Dyego Sousa is now joint top goalscorer in the country after his hat-trick blew away Feirense on Friday night.

• Benfica
• Primeira Liga,
• Sporting,
• FC Porto,
• Sporting de Braga,
• Bas Dost,
• Dyego Sousa

Fresh from an interlude of European football, attentions were drawn back to the populated hunt for first place in the Primeira Liga, as surprise package Sporting de Braga got us under away versus Feirense on Friday night.

The ‘Arsenalistas’ made light work of the relegation candidates with a 4-0 victory to momentarily push up to second, as FC Porto did their bit to secure first place for another week with a hard-earned triumph away to Santa Clara, defeating the newly-promoted side 2-1.

A narrow victory would be all Benfica required as well in their visit to Madeira on Sunday, as Marítimo succumbed to a 1-0 loss, reserving the goals for Sporting’s reception of Nacional at Alvalade, the Lions coming from two goals down for a 5-2 win to reclaim second place in the standings. PortuGOAL rounds up this weekend’s to action.