Great week--four wins and a loss (dammit Benfica, of all the times to blow it...). Crazy stuff from Braga but they pulled it out, and are now looking great to qualify from their group. These outcomes jump us all the way to 6th in Europe, still behind France but by mere fractions of a point. Russia is killing it, though, so they're the rival to watch. They're second overall and have 7.1 points. Effing impressive.
Solid if unspectacular home win today for Benfica, complemented by an away draw by Atletico to Astana in Kazakhstan. SLB now stands on 9 points from four games, good for first in the group, two points clear of Atletico. They are in good position to win the group. A win next game would clinch qualification, and a draw would make it damned likely. But getting full points v Astana in K-stan is no guarantee--both Galatasaray and Atletico have failed to do it, making Astana undefeated at home so far in the group. But Benfica is guaranteed no worse than the Europa League at this point, which sounds trivial but is something they failed to achieve last year. More exciting, perhaps, is that today's result, combined with failures by some competitor nations, pushed us all the way to fourth overall in Europe on the year, behind only Spain, Russia and Germany. The margin is tiny (we're at 5.833, while Norway and England are at 5.750 just behind us), but it's a good place to be. If we can pull off another awesome week we can lock in this newfound lofty status. For starters, let's hope Porto can grab full points against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel tomorrow.
Porto play Tel Aviv today away. Big game for the Porto side as a win puts them one foot in the round of 16
We could have another good round this week, Porto can definitely get max points in Israel. EL is looking pretty good too, Sporting if playing up to par will win in Albania, and after Belenenses away win at Basel they could go for a repeat performance at home. Braga will have it tougher at Marseille but who knows - they're on a high as well
Authoritative win from Porto against Maccabi Tel Aviv, 3-1 in Israel. Full points pushes our UEFA coefficient to 6.166, maintaining fourth place status, narrowly ahead of England. Both CL teams are on great form, winning big games against favored teams in the group (Chelsea, Atletico) and getting full or nearly full points against weaker teams. The last two games will be key, neither team has clinched, but with a home win against Dynamo Kyiv, Porto will top their group regardless of result against Chelsea in England. And if Benfica can get full points against Astana in K-stan, they'll be likely to get first in their group as well. The EL is very important to the overall UEFA standings, though, so this week has lots of crucial action remaining. Per @fdasilva's post, there's certainly a chance to haul in more points. I'd be disappointed if Sporting didn't get three more against Skenderbeu, while Belenenses can likely beat at home the Basel team they just beat away, and Braga looks strong enough to get an away win as well. Exciting times for a big year if Portugal can keep this up. Tomorrow will tell us a lot, including in terms of how and whether the EL teams are situated to advance.
NB: If Braga wins, they would clinch qualification to the R16. http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=2298025.html#europa+league+who+could+through+exit
Braga (who probably will still qualify) were away to Marseille and Belenenses lost at home to Basle who they beat away (and might still qualify) but Sporting embarrassed themselves away to a team they beat 5-1 a couple of weeks ago in which they scored their first Europa League group stage goal by 3-0, terrible. Sporting are highly likely to not qualify now as they have to beat Lokomotiv away (they lost at home to them) and Besiktas at home to guarantee qualification. Besiktas have the Albanians at home (almost surely 3 points) and Sporting away.
Just need PSG to get out in first knock out round. Should be able to stay above France then. I want Russia to pass France too.
Ouch. Well, the Europa League giveth, and the Europa League taketh away. Three games, three losses. Not the worst week we've ever had, but with 2W-0D-3L, not good either. And our Thursday flop means we got dinged all the way down to 8th in Europe on the year for failing to keep up with competitor nations--about a half-point behind France, for example, who had a good day in the Europa League last week. And fully agreed with @fdasilva, Sporting's ignominious defeat at Skenderbeu was the worst of the day. They will struggle to escape the group, unfortunately.
Terrible! Terrible! Terrible! by Porto. They only needed a draw to go through but instead they lose their first official game of the season and are favourites to go out as D. Kiev plays Maccabi Tel-Aviv at home who have lost all 5 games in the CL. Seeing that D. Kiev will almost certainly win that means that Porto need to win away to Chelsea as they only drew away to Kiev and Kiev won away. Basically Porto is on the edge of going out! Sporting will likely lose away to Locomotiv (concentrating on the league too) with Belenenses maybe 30/70 and only Braga with a very good chance of going through in Europa , suddenly it looks really bad for European points this year. Maybe only Braga and Benfica will go past the group stage.
Porto Cagou! They lost on purpose. all Portistas and Benfiquistas are united to stop SCP from winning the league this season. they want to concentrate on that now.
You must be out of your mind. How old are you? You think Porto, who have a rich history in Europe, would sacrifice Europe for the League? Sporting, Benfica and Porto are all in Europe competing to the best of their ability. One bad performance or result doesn't mean we are doing in on purpose.
Yes they would because Porto's whole purpose was to conspire to eliminate SCP from contention from national titles over the last 30 years and split them with SLB since PDC came to power. FCP's main target has always been SCP, not SLB. the rivalry with SLB is mostly fabricated for artificial purposes. but now things have come full circle, BDC is here and is brining SCP back to prominence whereas PDC is old and senile and your club is controlled by Antero and Doyen and other this party funds. Portuguese football has gone in cycles: SCP in the 40s/50s, Benfica 60s, 70s, SLB/FCP 80s, FCP 90s 00s, SLB/FCP 2010s thus far but a new SCP era is soon beginning under BDC
Mate, you need to go and relax. The rivalry with Benfica is fabricated? What delusional world do you live in?
Not Sporting. You can tell by the lineups they start in europa. Sporting knows they need success asap and that starts with a top 2 finish in Portugal which equals a CL spot.
Thank goodness SCP won against Lokomotiv in a Moscow 4-2 massive coefficient points right there Belemenses drew 0-0 against Poznan, Belenenses missed a penalty but look good to advance Braga play Slovan Liberec and a win takes them to the next round
Yes especially against a Russian team, big points - funny how up & down our team's performances have been this season in Europe. Belenenses I believe will need to win at Fiorentina to go through, that will be really really tough
Benfica put some effort in the last 20 minutes but it was too late as they lost 2-1 at home to Atletico. They drop to 2nd in the group and will probably get a big team in the knockout round. Time to see if Porto can send Chelsea packing and join Benfica in the knockouts
Once again Portugal has to rely on SCP to salvage pride but no, the haters only come out when we lose...
Clearly, Sporting is carrying Portuguese football in Europe. Last 5 seasons: 6th Benfica, 13th Porto and 36th Sporting. http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html This season: 12th Benfica, 18th Porto, 29th Braga and 47th Sporting. http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/seasonclub/index.html