South America’s premier club competition, the Copa Libertadores, began its group phase this midweek, with five Portuguese coaches leading teams from three different countries into the opening matchday.

Four of the five enjoyed winning starts, with Vítor Pereira’s Corinthians the exception as the Brazilians lost in Bolivia, incurring strong criticism from the former Porto boss. Reigning champions Palmeiras, coached by Abel Ferreira, won 4-0 at Venezuelans Deportivo Tachira, while fellow Brazilians Flamengo won in Peru under Paulo Sousa, and there were also victories for Renato Paiva with Ecuadorian champions Independiente del Valle and Pedro Caixinha’s Talleres de Cordoba of Argentina.

On the first weekend since Portugal sealed their place at Qatar 2022, there were plenty of Luso goals to celebrate across Europe. João Félix continues to show signs that he is making the transition into a consistent performer at Atletico Madrid with a brace in La Liga, while goals kept coming in batches as Beto and Ruben Rodrigues netted hat-tricks in Italy’s Serie A and the English National League respectively.

Diogo Jota was also on the scoresheet again for Liverpool in the Premier League, while there was a classy goal by Real Betis midfielder William Carvalho in Spain, and former Benfica man João Carvalho found the net on derby day in Greece for Olympiacos.

“He’s Five Foot Seven, He’s Football Heaven”. So goes the chant invented by the fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers in praise of their Portuguese idol João Moutinho.

Moutinho has majestically countered the common misconception that midfielders have to be big, fast and athletic to thrive in the modern game. The former Sporting, Porto and Monaco player has been brilliantly effective for whichever team he has represented ever since making his professional debut almost two decades ago.

That said, 2020/21 was a rare season in which Moutinho’s performance level was not quite at its usual metronomic excellence. PortuGOAL’s Wolves correspondent Alex Gonçalves takes a look at Moutinho’s renaissance this campaign. 

Udinese 5-1 Cagliari

Beto became only the second-ever Portuguese to score three times in Serie A this weekend, ending his recent goal drought with the first hat-trick of his career for Udinese against Cagliari on Sunday.

Cristiano Ronaldo had scored the only two previous Luso hat-tricks – coincidentally both also against Cagliari – but Beto takes his tally in the Italian league to 11 with his exploits having recently gone nine games without a goal.