Long into this very week, Sporting fans will be nursing the headache caused by Wednesday night’s officiating in their 2-1 loss away to Vitória de Setúbal, subsequently costing them a spot in the Taça CTT semi-finals.

With FC Porto also co-owning such pain, referees are sure to claim their fair share of ink in dedicated papers, not to mention the routine airtime already afforded to the men in the middle.

Both Sporting’s and Porto’s hierarchy are sure to lead the very public inquest into the competence pf refereeing and their reasons for doing so are obvious.

Nobody wants to lose in ways they cannot control, even more so when it results in elimination, but the Lions should also be wise enough to recognise their problems extend beyond the point of unfair officiating.

FC Porto and Sporting were knocked out of the Taça da Liga this midweek by Moreirense and Vitória Setúbal respectively, who both make the final four of the competition. 

The semi-finals and the final will take place at the end of January in the Algarve, with the other two semi-finalists decided next week.

The Portuguese League Cup, which is in its 10th year, has undergone a series of format changes, all with the intention of making it easy for the so-called Big Three to make it to the latter stages of the competition. Both Porto and Sporting were placed in 4-team groups with modest opposition and played two of their three games at home, but still fell by the wayside.

The focus today falls on Belenenses in the third of PortuGOAL’s series of in-depth analyses of Portugal’s lesser known top-flight clubs.

At a club steeped in history, new coach Quim Machado is starting to get the best out of an extremely talented squad, which includes players that could well have a huge future in the game.

Tiago Estêvão runs the rule over Machado’s team, who recently took points off FC Porto and will be aiming to deepen Sporting’s crisis at the Restelo tonight.

One year ago, many in Portugal were saying Jorge Jesus had overtaken Jose Mourinho as the best Portuguese manager.

Jesus had won everything at Benfica, sensationally and acrimoniously walked out for fierce Lisbon rivals Sporting, and subsequently led the Lions to a flying start to the season.

Now, following a third defeat in four games for Sporting, few would dare to utter such a notion.