• Primeira Liga,
• Rio Ave
• Galeno
• Sergio Conceicao
• Evanilson
• Jhonatan

FC Porto 0-0 Rio Ave

FC Porto have slipped up once more in the race for the Primeira Liga title after seeing two goals disallowed for offside maintain a 0-0 score-line at home to Rio Ave, this Saturday.

The Dragons thought they had led twice during the encounter, once through Galeno before Evanilson’s turn, but both goals were pulled up by VAR for being marginally offside.

Rio Ave were even forced to play the last five minutes of the game down to ten men but were able to survive the onslaught late on from Porto, earning the Vilacondenses an important draw and leaving their opponents, potentially, seven points off the top of the table.

The winter transfer window has closed and Portugal’s major teams can breathe a sigh of relief given that, unlike most seasons, they have not lost one or more of their best players to high-profile clubs/leagues.

That is not to say that no activity took place, however, with Benfica, Porto and Sporting all fine-tuning their squads ahead of the second half of the season. With the tightest Primeira Liga title race in years playing out, the business done in the last few weeks could be a crucial factor deciding who will be crowned champions of Portugal in May.

So who “won” the transfer window in Portugal? PortuGOAL summarises the moves made. 

Few Manchester City fans will have known what to expect from Rúben Dias when he arrived at the Etihad Stadium in 2020. If they were somewhat in the dark back then, they certainly aren’t anymore.

Dias was acquired from Benfica in a transfer package worth around €68 million involving Nicolás Otamendi going in the opposite direction, but that could be considered a snip given the asking prices that have become commonplace in modern football. He’s certainly gone above and beyond when it comes to delivering a return on that investment. 

Jornada 20 sees the Primeira Liga settle back into a sense of normality after the disruption of the Allianz Cup final four last week.

The last round of matches was full of goals as Sporting put 8 past Casa Pia, Arouca got their biggest ever Primeira Liga victory by scoring 5 against Vizela, and five out of the nine games registered four or more goals. 

Are we in for a similar goal fest this weekend? PortuGOAL previews the Primeira Liga action.