As we near the end of the 2015-16 Liga NOS campaign, much has rightly been made of the exciting race for the title. Until a fortnight or so ago, it was a three-horse race for the first time in some years.
As Porto’s title credentials have faded in recent weeks, it now looks certain that the title will be going to the nation’s capital as Benfica and Sporting duke it out. However, there is plenty for other clubs to play for too. None more so than at the bottom-end of the table where any one of seven clubs could still be considered vulnerable.
Relegation is never a pleasant experience to go through, as any fan will tell you. Whereas it perhaps looked cut and dried just a month or so ago, the competition has been blown wide open, with just five games left to play. Here is a look at the clubs involved and what lies immediately ahead of them as they strive for safety.
Champions League football returned to a packed Estádio da Luz on Wednesday evening, in the shape of the quarter-final 2nd Leg. Trailing 0-1 from the first leg in Germany, Benfica’s disciplined display had managed to give them a fighting chance against the German champions, Bayern Munich.
With the task of defeating Académica in the hotly contested Liga NOS sandwiched between two heavyweight ties against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League, ‘respite’ is a word that won’t be entering Benfica’s vocabulary so soon.
Sporting Braga were defeated 2-1 by Shakhtar Donetsk at the Estádio Municipal de Braga tonight. 
Braga attempt to take a step towards the Europa League semi-finals tomorrow as they host Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg at the Quarry.The last time the Arsenalistas faced Ukrainian opposition in the quarter-finals of this competition, in March 2011, they beat Dynamo Kyiv and made it all the way to the final. A good portent?