Portuguese Football in English
Braga have pulled off a big surprise in the closing week of the transfer market by signing former Portugal international João Moutinho on a one-year contract.
Moutinho, who has 146 caps for his country, was expected to return to FC Porto, but Moutinho’s picture is all over the Portuguese press today alongside Braga president António Salvador and not Porto president Pinto da Costa.
So here we are, two games into the new season, and whilst it’s far too early to get an idea of how the league table will shape up, we are getting our first impressions of how teams are looking at this nascent stage of the campaign.
Boavista have surprised many with a flawless start to the season, clocking up two wins including a famous victory over Benfica in Jornada 1 and a 4-1 win over Portimonense last weekend which sees them top of the table with the most goals scored of any team.
Braga beat Panathinaikos 2-1 in a entertaining and hard-fought encounter at the Quarry tonight as both teams attempt to make the Champions League group stage after an absence of more than a decade.
Artur Jorge’s team struggled to get their game going before the break, but Abel Ruiz and Álvaro Djaló scored in the second half to put Braga in command, with Rony Lopes seeing a golden chance to make it 3-0 saved by Italian goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli.
Moments later Daniel Mancini scored for the visitors, meaning the Portuguese team will have to defend a single-goal lead in Athens next week.
It’s been a tough 24 hours for FC Porto fans. Yesterday news broke that midfielder Otávio had been sold to Al Nassr, quickly followed by rumours that coach Sérgio Conceição had threatened to quit the club in protest at losing his star player.
Today, the Dragons hosted Farense and were on the cusp of dropping points as the score remained 1-1 with just a couple of the 12 allotted minutes of stoppage time remaining, only for captain Iván Marcano to head a Gonçalo Borges cross into the net and transform the gloom into euphoria among the Portistas packed into the stands.
Benfica beat Estrela da Amadora 2-0 at the Estádio da Luz tonight in front of almost 60,000 fans in the first home game of the defence of their championship title.
The hosts were on top for the vast majority of the match, but were constantly frustrated by a strong rearguard action from the visitors and a heroic goalkeeping display by Bruno Brigido.
Estrela’s resistance was finally broken by substitute David Neres, who set up late goals for Casper Tengstedt and Rafa Silva in a brilliant cameo appearance off the bench.
