Portuguese Football in English
After Sporting’s historic 3-0 win at the Estádio da Luz on Sunday night, is it finally time for Sporting Clube de Portugal to capture their first Primeira Liga trophy since Mário Jardel was firing the Leões to the title back in 2002?
It has been a rough 13 years for Sporting fans since then. Only under Paulo Bento in 2006/2007 did Sporting really come close to regaining the league title. From that point on, Sporting will look back and wonder why they couldn’t build on that.
Teófilo Gutiérrez took advantage of poor Benfica defending to give the visitors the lead. Islam Slimani’s header made it two before Bryan Ruiz effectively killed the game off after just 36 minutes with goal number three.
Rui Vitória named the same side that lost in Turkey against Galatasaray in midweek with Jonas and Raúl Jiménez leading the line for the home side.
Jorge Jesus, returning to the Estádio da Luz for the first time since becoming Sporting manager, was greeted by as frosty a reception as you can imagine. Bryan Ruiz returned to the starting eleven after passing a late fitness test. Despite the fact Sporting had played on Thursday, Jesus had the advantage of fielding a much rotated team with goalkeeper Rui Patrício the only repeat starter from the 5-1 win over Skënderbeu.
What a fantastic start to the campaign it’s been for Rio Ave. Pedro Martins’ men sit pretty in 3rd place in the Liga NOS, and only a stoppage-time goal from Estoril prevented the Vila do Conde team from going joint top of the Liga NOS tonight, for 24 hours at least.
The 2-2 draw at Estoril (Rio Ave scoring through Zeegelaar and Guedes) makes it 8 games played, 4 wins earned and just a single loss this season, at home to Sporting (1-2) on 13 September.
Given that the club finished in 10th position last season, did many really expect this? And also, is there much optimism that Rio Ave can hold this kind of form as the season progresses? Paul Gellard investigates.
It was a perfect night for Portuguese football in the Europa League.
Sporting dispatched Albanian outfit Skenderbeu 5-1 at the Alvalade, despite coach Jorge Jesus selecting a second-string team, while on an emotional night in Braga the hosts won a thrilling game 3-2 against French side Marseille.
The result of the night however was obtained by Belenenses, who against all expectations came from behind to beat Basel 2-1 in Switzerland.
Matchday 3 in the Champions League saw Benfica travel to Istanbul to take on Turkish giants, Galatasaray. Rui Vitória’s side topped Group C going into this game, with maximum points from a home fixture with Astana and a trip to Madrid to take on Atletico.
A 4-4-2 system was named with Sílvio continuing at right-back in place of the injured Nélson Semedo. Up front, Raúl Jiménez started alongside Jonas in place of Kostas Mitroglou who dropped to the bench.
