It is as you were at table top as after this weekend’s action with the top four all winning their respective matches.

Benfica were first in action and two early goals helped the Eagles dispatch Arouca 3-1 in Lisbon to temporarily put the reigning champions in first place in the standings. Sporting responded well to the pressure, producing a vibrant attacking performance at Paços de Ferreira in a 3-1 victory.

José Peseiro started life as the new FC Porto coach with a 1-0 victory over Marítimo, while Braga continued their impressive form, thrashing Rio Ave 5-1 at the quarry.

Former Sporting and Braga coach signs 18-month contract

FC Porto have appointed José Peseiro as their new coach.

The 55-year-old succeeds Spaniard Julen Lopetegui in the hot seat at the Estádio do Dragão having put pen to paper on a contract until the summer of 2017, with an option for a further season. 

It has now been almost a fortnight since Julen Lopetegui and his former employers, FC Porto, went their separate ways, but we are still none the wiser as to who will take managerial control at the Estádio do Dragão.

Being five points behind top spot might not seem like a great deal, but with 16 games left of the Liga NOS season to go in what’s proving to be, finally, a three-horse race between Sporting, Benfica and Porto, the need for the ‘Dragões’ to appoint the correct manager and stay within a shout of the title appears to be paramount. Failure to do so would be seen as throwing the title away when Lopetegui was just four points off the top two fixtures ago. But who might the right choice be for Porto?

It was with a clash between first placed Sporting and Tondela, rooted to the bottom of the Liga NOS table, that we officially welcomed the second half of the season at the Alvalade. And while Jorge Jesus’ men looked to add to last week’s heroics versus Sporting de Braga, city rivals Benfica made the short journey west to the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota in a bid to defeat mid-table Estoril and keep up with the green half of Lisbon.

Elsewhere, caretaker manager Rui Barros was in charge of FC Porto for only his third game, one which came under unusual circumstances as he went head-to-head with former Porto teammate and current Vitória de Guimarães boss Sérgio Conceição, a hot favourite to succeed the sacked Julen Lopetegui. Patrick Ribeiro rounds up the weekend action in which the Big Three had differing results after all three had fallen behind in their respective matches.