Sporting Clube de Braga’s stuttering Europa League campaign suffered another setback as the Portuguese team were well beaten in the Italian capital against Roma.

Cláudio Ranieri’s team have seemingly turned over a new leaf in their volatile 2024/2025 campaign as Braga were dominated in what ended up a slightly flattering 3-0 loss for the visitors. Kevin Fernandes reports. 

Benfica were held to a 0-0 draw against Bologna in a frustrating UEFA Champions League encounter at Estádio da Luz.

Vangelis Pavlidis scored from an offside position before the Italian club took control without threatening Anatolii Trubin.

Ángel Di María tested Lukasz Skorupski before the break and Alexander Bah hit the bar from a tight angle, the Eagles going closest to breaking the deadlock in the 65th minute when Skorupski denied Pavlidis.

Di María and Zeki Amdouni had chances in the closing stages but there would be no breakthrough in Lisbon, Benfica sitting 15th on the table with two games remaining.

How does a team go from being unbeatable (17W 1D 0L in 18 games), winning matches at a canter, playing wonderful football to the diametric opposite at the flick of a switch?

Okay, the switch in question has “Ruben Amorim OFF, João Pereira ON” written on it, but even accounting for the sudden loss of their coach, the manner in which the Portuguese champions appear to have forgotten how to play football is truly baffling.

Books may be written on the phenomenon in years to come. For now here is the report after another traumatic night for Sporting in Belgium and an attempt to describe what is going on at the Lisbon club. 

The top teams feeling the pressure

It was a very unusual week in Portugal’s Liga II. The top teams were shocked and none of them won. Tondela drew against Vizela 1-1, but still managed to stay leaders at the end of round 13.

Penafiel, however, continued the rough patch they are going through with a 3-0 loss away from home against Feirense, which brings up the question: is Penafiel’s promotion drive running out of steam?

PortuGOAL rounds up the weekend action in the Segunda Liga.