Portuguese football season 2022/23

[rpo.castro]

After MD7

1. Benfica 21
2. Braga 19
3. Porto 16
4. Portimonense 15
5. Boavista 15
6. Casa Pia 14
7. Estoril 11
8. Sporting 10
9. Guimarães 10
10. Gil Vicente 9
11. Chaves 8
12. Arouca 8
13. Rio Ave 6
14. Santa Clara 5
15. Vizela 5
-------Relegation Play off-------
16. Famalicão 4
------Relegation------
17. Paços de Ferreira 1
18. Marítimo 0

This edition really lacks quality. The amount of teams with no level for a 1st tier is huge. Most of teams below 8th haven't had a decent match where they did show some real football.
More and more shady "investors" and football "agents" bringing their players to show and sell.

[rpo.castro]

Biggest winner of the week FC Porto. Beat Braga (4-1) and saw benfica get a draw at Guimarães. It should have been a defeat but once more the article #33 and #34 of portuguese regulations were aplied (if a striker from porto or benfica dives, a penalty must be given, if there is a penalty against them, the referee should be temporarily blind and VAR will having a temporarily malfunction).

So everything good for the status quo, no wife was beaten by an angry husband and even sporting managed to get their win to keep their streak WLWLW

[rpo.castro]

major news of today Qatar Sports Investments will buy a share os 21% of SC Braga, for now. This was confirmed to the stock market operator.

Regarding football, wins for Benfica, Porto and Sporting.
Losses for Braga, Casa Pia, and a draw for Boavista (against last one Marítimo that after 9 MD got it first point-a record of time to get first points)..

1. Benfica 25
2. Porto 22
3. Braga 19
4. Casa Pia 17
5. Sporting 16
6. Boavista 16
...
16. Santa Clara 5
17. Paços de Ferreira 2
18. Marítimo 1

[rpo.castro]

Portuguese Cup
Benfica won on penalty shoot out against Caldas SC (3rd tier) after 1-1 (FT, no change in ET).

Sporting eliminated by Varzim (3rd tier).
Santa Clara, Marítimo, Boavista, Portimonense, Rio Ave, Paços de Ferreira, Chaves are the other teams from 1st tier that were eliminated in this round which was the 1st for them and they all faced (by rules) teams from lower divisions (8 in 18).

[rpo.castro]

Porto draw 1-1 at Santa Clara while Benfica is winning 4-0 against Chaves. Porto will be 8 points behind Benfica. A big gap in such early stage.

[rpo.castro]

Benfica scored one more (5-0). Sporting lost again and is 12 points behind the leader and 4 pts behind Porto.
Braga will play later

[Firnen]

Benfica has more or less won the title already barring a monumental collapse.

Without a play-off system and in a league where the big teams rarely drop points to the minnows, this is a huge lead.

[rpo.castro]

Big fat wins for the Big three:
Porto 4-0 over last placed Paços de Ferreira
Estoril 1-5 Benfica
Sporting 3-0 Guimarães, although if this match was with a normal referee Sporting would end with 9 players as usual on european cups.

Braga fucked up again, 0-1 against newly promoted Casa Pia and 4th on the league. 5 defeats in one month for Braga.

Only Benfica can lose the tilte.

[HugoBenfica12]

and sounds like Braga screwed it up once again they lose to Sporting 5-0

Artur Jorge will get in trouble now and ended up get sacked in january

[rpo.castro]

and sounds like Braga screwed it up once again they lose to Sporting 5-0

Artur Jorge will get in trouble now and ended up get sacked in january

While benfica is its way to win another League Cup.

Not.

[xavier_]

Regarding the League Cup, rather than highlighting the disappointments - I would rather note that we have 2 first time semi finalists. Arouca and Academico de Viseu.

Academico de Viseu, currently playing in the II LIga, are a club from the center north of Portugal and I will face FC Porto in the semi finals in Leiria. They were able to knock out Boavista (another team from Porto city), and while FC Porto are - > hugely favorites, they tend to under perform in the League Cup - so while difficult its not impossible to have a surprise here.

Arouca, also from the center north of Portugal, a village of around 3000 people - some of the users might know this club as they not so long ago were taking Olympiacos to extra time to try to get to the EL group stages. They failed, and later than season even got relegated in the League. Arouca had some hard times, as they went all the way down to the III Division. Arouca managed to come back to the I Liga last season, and this year they seem to be in quite a good form. They will face Sporting, a team they already beat this season at home for the League.

Overall Sporting are the big favorites for this competition, in the past 5 years they won this cup 4 times.

Another note regarding Arouca and Academico de Viseu, is that both teams are also still in the Cup of Portugal. Arouca will face FC Porto next month for the last 16, and the winner might face Academico de Viseu (if they beat IV Division Beira-Mar).

[rpo.castro]

Huge comeback for Braga: 3-0 win over Benfica.
Now they are 6pts behind Benfica, 1pt behind Porto.

[xavier_]

Huge comeback for Braga: 3-0 win over Benfica.
Now they are 6pts behind Benfica, 1pt behind Porto.

Big win for Braga, the second goal was a beauty.

Benfica after unexpectedly failing the group stages in the League Cup, returns to the League with a heavy defeat. Could this mean trouble for them? They are about to make a buck with Enzo, if he indeed goes to Chelsea.

The year ends like this in the top 6
1. Benfica 37 pts
2. FC Porto 32 pts
3. Braga 31 pts
4. Sporting 28 pts
5. Casa Pia 26 pts
6. Vitória 23 pts

It would surprise me if this are not the teams to qualify to Europe at the end of the season.

[rpo.castro]

There was a certain time that a certain club wanted a player from other club, smaller. They spoke with the player and reach an agreement. Then they went to the club to buy the player, but they thought the price was too high. So they asked the player to refuse to play (which he didn't), made a huge media campaign "Free Ricardo Horta", sent e-mails to Malaga to pressure Braga, threats with processes in FIFA. Braga was the bad guy for not letting Horta pursue his dream, at the cost defined by benfica.

A few months later, same story some new characters. But now the bad guy isn't the club that doesn't let Enzo pursue his dream. Now the bad one is the one harassing Enzo.

Karma is a b!tch!

[rpo.castro]

15th match day
Santa Clara 0-4 SC Braga
Benfica 1-0 Portimonense
Casa Pia 0-0 Porto (Casa Pia with 10 players half of the match)
Marítimo 1-0 Sporting

Standings

1 Benfica 40
2 Braga 34
3 Porto 33
--------
4 Sporting 28
5 Casa Pia 27
-----
6 Vitória SC 24

....

16 Gil Vicente 12
--------
17 Marítimo 10
18 P. Ferreira 3