Liga Nos - The Beginning

LIGA NOS

The portuguese league is mostly known for its three big clubs, in Benfica, Sporting and Porto, teams that we are used to see in the group and latter stages of the European competitions, with Sp.Braga trying to establish themselves as the 4^th big club of the country.
 In the last three years Benfica were victorious, but that almost changed last time around, when their former manager Jorge Jesus made a dramatic move to rivals Sporting. The team that brought us Ronaldo and Figo almost end their title drought, but were overturned by a Benfica hurt in their pride. Both teams are the major contenders, whilst Porto is rebuiliding, facing the worst years in decades, without any titles to show. Nuno Espírito Santo is a former player and he knows the club, but there are doubts he can be the man to restart Porto’s winning ways.







                                 

SL BENFICA

Rui Vitória had to overcome a lot of challenges, but he got the title he was hired to retain. Now he IS the manager that holds the title, not merely the one that’s managing the champion, and Benfica has the difficult task of retaining a title that will be decide on details. Not as active as usual in the transfer market, especially in the sale side of things, they still produced a major splash with the sale of wonderkid Renato Sanches to Bayern Munich. That left them a bit weak in the center of the pitch, and that lack of punch that Sanches brought, and catapulted Benfica to the title, might be an issue, as defenses will park the bus 90% of the time. The Eagles started relatively well, but they conceded two home points that raised some alarms bells.

SPORTING CP

In Jorge Jesus’ mind he was still responsible for the Benfica 3^rd league in row, either because he built the team – which is debatable, at least – or because his new team, Sporting, had everything in their hand and they threw it away in a very scrappy game at Estádio José Alvalade, that Benfica won 0-1 to never let go of the lead. 

 JJ won’t lose any confidence in himself though, and after a very busy transfer market, Sporting lost two of their main man (Slimani and João Mário), but they were clinical in the replacements, and we’ll see names like Bas Dost, Joel Campbell or Lazar Markovic in Lisbon. The season started very well for the Lions, with 3 out of 3 wins, in which is included a 2-1 win against Porto, a game they dominated and showed Sporting is ready to, finally, be champion again.

                                 

   

FC PORTO

Two years in a row without titles. For every other team that would be a poor, but in the end acceptable result, but with FC Porto that’s not exactly like that. They have been one of the dominant forces in Portugal, with special incidence in the last 30 odd years, where they started to challenge Benfica number of titles (League+Cups)

 Things have changed, though, and Porto, while still a great team, does seem a bit behind their two major rivals, and the start of the season didn’t help to shake that feeling away. Two hard fought wins and a decisive loss against Sporting were overshadowed by AS Roma debacle in the 2^nd leg of the Champions League playoff, that allowed Porto to cruise to the group stage.

                                 The League

It’s going to be, as usual, a fight between 2/3 teams until the end, to see who will the Portuguese Champion. Sporting started better than anyone, much like last year, but Jorge Jesus knows what happened last season and will make sure he avoids repeating it. A shout to Vit.Setúbal that started the year really well, an historic team that seems determined by default to fight for relegation, maybe this year they will be safer with experienced José Couceiro (former Lokomotiv Moscow and Lituania manager).