Portuguese Football in English
The 2024-25 UEFA Champions League draw presents a formidable challenge for Portuguese teams Benfica and Sporting CP.
Both clubs are set to face some of Europe’s top sides, requiring them to navigate a particularly demanding league phase to have any hope of advancing to the knockout stages.
Both sides may be outsiders at the major betting sites to win the Champions League, but we take a closer look at the challenges Benfica and Sporting will face over the eight matchdays.
After an exciting summer with the Euros, the domestic seasons have also begun, and football supporters around the world are looking forward to the new look of UEFA competitions. In this article, we’ll explore which Portuguese teams have qualified for European competitions and assess their chances of success.
There was a time when coming to Porto meant entering a gritty, foggy and unsavoury world of hard-working and dodgy men — a place where beauty and gallantry had no room. That time is no more. No club has experienced such a dramatic change in identity in so few months as the Dragões, since André Villas-Boas surprisingly ended Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa’s longstanding reign as club chairman.
It was a bold move by the former manager, one fuelled by years of frustration among many club members that became even more clear in the dramatic events of the club’s general assembly back in November, where several ultra-group members physically and verbally abused many sócios while the president and his board stood still and watched unimpressed.
Deadline day deals in Portuguese transfer market
It was a hectic deadline day in the Portuguese transfer market yesterday, with some big deals completed, namely the sale of Benfica striker Marco Leonardo to Saudi Arabian champions Al Hilal and the purchase of Danish striker Conrad Harder by Sporting.
The biggest one of them all though – Porto winger Wenderson Galeno to Al-Ittihad for €50 million – fell through in unusual circumstances as it was vetoed at the last minute by the Saudi club’s CEO Domingos Soares de Oliveira, who spent years on Benfica’s board.
PortuGOAL rounds up the main deals that were completed in the final days the summer transfer window in Portugal.
Portuguese champions Sporting Clube de Portugal went clear at the top of the Primeira Liga after beating FC Porto 2-0 in Lisbon tonight.
The Lions edged a hard-fought match, creating the better and more numerous chances, but it needed a typically powerful piece of play by Viktor Gyökeres to break the deadlock in the 72nd minute, the Swede winning and converting a penalty.
Geny Catamo made sure of the three points with a fine injury-time strike. Tom Kundert reports from Alvalade.
