Portuguese Football in English
Portuguese managers are in vogue. Leonardo Jardim, Sérgio Conceição, Marco Silva and Rui Vitória, just to name the most obvious examples, all greatly enhanced their reputations this season, at a time when, after a decade and a half of almost unbroken success, some argue José Mourinho has lost his magic touch.
Who deserves the title of the best current Portuguese football manager? PortuGOAL looks at the top six candidates and their credentials.
With one round of matches still to go in the 2016/17 Liga NOS season, Sporting have begun the job of restructuring their squad for next year after a disappointing campaign.
The Lisbon club yesterday announced the signings of Italian right-back Cristiano Piccini and Brazilian attacking midfielder Mattheus Oliveira, both penning contracts until 2022 with buyout clauses of €45 million and €60 million respectively.
The defender, 24 years old, cost Sporting €3.5m from La Liga club Betis, while 22-year-old Mattheus – son of Brazilian legend Bebeto – is reported to have cost around €1m from Estoril.
Following last week’s results, two points was all that separated Benfica and an all-new fourth consecutive league title for the club’s history books, as a season high of 64,500 fans took to the Estádio da Luz for their encounter versus Vitória de Guimarães.
With the champagne on ice, four first-half goals from the likes of Franco Cervi, Raúl Jiménez, Jonas and Pizzi saw the Eagles blitz past their opponents before going on to clinch the title with a 5-0 victory.
Far from pleased are their Lisbon counterparts, Sporting, who followed up last week’s shock defeat at home to Belenenses with a second loss on the spin as Feirense ran out 2-1 winners at home to the Lions.
Their defeat meant that FC Porto had mathematically cemented 2nd place in the league table before returning to winning ways with a comprehensive 4-1 win at home to Paços de Ferreira.
In front of a capacity crowd at the Estádio da Luz, Benfica beat Vitória Guimarães 5-0 to clinch the 2016/17 Portuguese championship with a game to spare.
First-half goals by Franco Cervi, Raul Jiménez, Pizzi and Jonas completely blitzed a Vitória side who had come into the match in sparkling form, having won their previous seven matches. Jonas completed the rout with a second-half penalty, and the visitors can count themselves lucky they did not concede more.
It is the first time in Benfica’s illustrious history that the Lisbon club has won four straight championship titles.
In a pivotal week for Primeira Liga football, FC Porto’s title hunt descended very quickly into the defence of second place, having let go of a 1-0 lead to draw 1-1 away to Marítimo.
A win for Sporting would’ve seen the Lions close the gap between them and Porto to just three points, with both supposedly now vying for automatic qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League, but a shock 3-1 defeat to Belenenses would go on to end all hopes the Lions had of climbing up the league table
Benfica didn’t fluff their lines, in contrast, clinching a hard-fought 1-0 win away to Rio Ave to leave them just two points away from a fourth consecutive Liga NOS title.
