2004 / 2005 looks like it will be a great year for Portuguese Soccer. Porto will be in the Champions League. Benfica will be in Champions league playoffs. Sporting Lisbon, Braga, National , Martimo will all be in Uefa. Congradulations to the teams from the island of Maderia.
Performance in UEFA competitions. Porto won the UEFA Cup last year, Benfica and Sporting advanced a couple of rounds last year. Porto did well in the Champs League a couple of years ago. It will only get better. Starting in 05-06, Portugal will have two automatic slots in the CL. If Porto beats Monaco, our prospects will only improve in the future.
don't forget Boavista reach the semi-finals of the Uefa cup last season, Leixoes had 7 points and Leiria 5 these season the total of points come from the wins and tie's in the last 5 seasons
Benfica reached the round of 16 this year in the UEFA Cup, and with a little luck could of gone further.
We've done so well having gone this far. Now the challenge is to keep our position and (hopefully) catch up to the French at some point in the future. I know some of our Franco friends don't like to read this but not speculating wouldn't be so fun. I think Maritimo and Nacional can go far, maybe up to the Round of 16. People may think of vacation when going to Funchal and may not be as motivated to play otherwise. LOL
That happened to Leeds Utd. when they played Maritimo a couple of years ago, although they won the return leg.