LIGA NOS
In Portugal things started as you would expect, with
the three big teams doing their business with some tough hurdles to overcome
and some slips that tend to happen. This is a league where there’s a lot of
football discussion, mainly with refereeing nonsense but even those background
noises have been kept to a minimum as things haven’t heated up yet.
SL BENFICA
A lot of injuries have been marking Benfica’s start of season, but the 3-time champions have dealt well, securing 3 tough away wins whilst missing last season’s striking duo of Jonas and Mitroglu. The Greek was already back for the match against Braga, and the former Fulham man made is impact felt with a brace, a brace that helped Benfica regain the lead.
SPORTING CP
They were having the perfect start of the season. Four wins out of four in the league, and even the first defeat came in Europe, but in a positive manner – if a defeat can be positive – as they manhandled Real Madrid and deserved far more than what they got.
The real question is what happened at Vila do Conde, where they conceded 3 goals in 15 minutes that made them give away the top spot. Jesus rotated a lot of the squad, though, and surely some of those players will have trouble coming back to the starting XI after that horrible display.
FC PORTO
It hasn’t been brilliant, but Nuno Espírito Santo has been able to get the results that keep his team in the fight, even though they already lost 5 points this season. It has been a very young squad, eager to prove themselves worthy to wear the Porto shirt, with names like André Silva, Otávio or Óliver being the most positive so far. The draw at Tondela was lackluster but nothing is lost yet, and as all the big teams have slipped up anything is up to grabs.
The League
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| Latest Results |
Benfica made the most of Sporting’s thrashing at the
Estádio dos Arcos and took back the lead from Jorge Jesus much earlier than
last season and they know they won’t win all games after the feat, like they
did to win the 3rd title in a row. Rui Vitória will face an
interesting test against Chaves, the other unbeaten team in the league, whilst
always looking at Porto. If both teams do their bidding, the clash in 10th
matchday can be very important, but Porto needs to win the games against the
likes of Tondela, dead last that took half of their points tally against the
2004 european champions.
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| The order will change throughout the season, but we predict the top 4 will be those there now. An easy prediction |
Top Goalscorers
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| Marega started his loan spell from Porto with a bang |
Next Fixtures
Games to follow :
Round 6 - FC Porto (3rd) vs Boavista (12th) ; Chaves (6th) vs Benfica (1st)
Round 7 - Vit.Guimarães (10th) vs Sporting (2nd) ; Nacional (15th) vs FC Porto (3rd)
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