A brace from João Mário (for the second game running) and a goal from Alexander Bah saw a dominant Benfica beat Casa Pia 3-0 at the Estádio da Luz this evening. 

The Bwin Liga leaders will not be even bigger favourites with the best betting sites in Canada to win the Portuguese championship. 

The visitors held out for over half an hour, but once the breakthrough came the result was never in doubt as Benfica extend their lead at the top of the table to 11 points, albeit having played two games more than their title rivals. 

At the start of the January transfer window, Portuguese giants Benfica announced the signing of 18-year-old Andreas Schjelderup.

The young Norwegian joined the Lisbon club after a long and competitive transfer battle between some of Europe’s biggest clubs, and he has arrived with huge expectations.

Danish football journalist Toke Theilade has closely monitored Schjelderup’s career to date and tells PortuGOAL why he is such an exciting prospect. 

A slightly disjointed 18th round of fixtures in Portugal’s Primeira Liga took place amid the backdrop of a typically frantic transfer deadline day. League leaders Benfica comforted themselves after the loss of their star man Enzo Fernández to cement their place at the top of the table by beating Arouca 3-0.

Porto kept touch in the title race by triumphing over Marítimo in a bad-tempered affair, whilst Sporting dished out their second 5-0 thrashing of the season over a previously in-form Braga to close the gap between the pair in 3rd and 4th.

One of the campaign’s biggest stories has been league newboys Casa Pia, who have flown up the table in their maiden modern era top-flight campaign. They look to have struck gold in the transfer market too as their latest acquisition and PortuGOAL Figure of the Week Yuki Soma made a sensational appearance off the bench to guide his new team to victory over Santa Clara.

Braga coach Artur Jorge will have haunting nightmares about the José Alvalade stadium. A few weeks after suffering a thumping 5-0 defeat at the Lisbon venue in the Taça da Liga, the exact same scoreline was repeated, this time in the league.

Sporting put the disappointment of defeat in the Taça da Liga final on Saturday behind them as a brace from man-of-the-match Hidemasa Morita and further goals from Marcus Edwards, Matheus Reis and Pedro Gonçalves gave the Lions a resounding victory.