Hi all, firstly let me refer to the Benfica v Sporting match. Just arrived back in cold in London after a few days in Lisbon and as a benfiquista, this is a big match to go to. The atmosphere immense and intense and benfica were deserved winners as sporting played always on the counter-attack although sporting were much improved with Couceiro at the helm, benfica were worthy winners. Stats prove it.

I've also just been reading all the negative comments. Get a grip guys!!! As an early days contributor to Portugoal, I can categorically tell everyone on here the guys do a great job for no payment, only Portuguese football passion. If you don't like what you read, go somewhere else!!! Can't be nice giving up your time and then have people throw it back in your face. Would you be happy if the site was pulled down? Give them a break FFS!!!

Keep up the superb reporting lads.

Viva Benfica - Viva Chelsea.

(Mdot)
Yes you are correct Benfica are in all 4 competitions, despite falling out of one, they got saved by Lyon in the last minute and ended up falling into the Europa League (a second tier competition as considered by most Benfiquistas and the beginning of the season)..

But you must not forget that the Europa League is the main one, second would be The Liga (witch is played over 30 games), and then a very distant second and third the cups.. Yes they are still victories, but like in England, Spain and Italy not considered important by the Big Clubs, hence the idea of making it obligatory to have a minimum 9 homegrown player on the roster...

Who Gives a Sh!t this was an irrelevant game with two irrelevant teams (and im a sportingista). Benfiquistas especially need to stop acting like they won something important. At the end of the season both teams will have lost in the europa and the league but will most likely make the champions league esp if 2of the 3 teams advance to the next round of europa (whimever they may be). Porto has a good shot at winning the tournament as long as falcao stays healthy. Sporting has cleaned house in terms of front office people but the board and the structure and attitude of the entire club need to be looked at. Say what you will about sporting but we have the school to survive this turmoil. Homegrown talent will always keep sporting in the top 3 even when there are financial difficulties. Sergio had to go. Salomao barely sees the field. Maniche Mendes Polga Torsiglierri Evaldo all need to go ASAP. Sorry bryan but id love too see sporting snatch up pizzi. I also would like to see a pele andre santos combination in midfield. Pele the steel. Santos the finesse. Salomao and Pizzi on the wings. Saleiro and Yannick up front. Carrico Coelho and Perreira on defence. Patricio in goal. I know thats a very young lineup but at this point Pele n Pizzi would be good young portuguese investments. If only there was some competence at sporting.

Great rebuttle Ben/UK.
Even Bryan/SCB apology is ridiculous.
It's as if if he would have known that it was a Sportinguista writting the commentary he wouldn't have made those comments.
Basically meaning he either wasn't watching the game or is causing/stating arguments for the sake of making them instead of knowing what he's talking about.

Amazingly for all the pounding Benfica fans take on this site, it seems to me that it's mostly us that praise the opponents efforts. All Benfiquistas knew it was going to be a very tough match and actually have praised Sportings effort. By all accounts it might have been Sportings best game.
Postiga did play very well. Djalo on the other hand once again did nothing. Just pace up the side, every once in a while, and bad crosses. When he did have an opportunity to go one on one with the defender, Luisao, he chose to shoot form far. If Sporting thinks that's a good performance, they have even bigger issues.
The biggest problem for Sporting was that Perreira had to stay back instead of helping on offense. He had to hold Nico and Coentrao in check, so that removed a big threat.
That being said Sporting did have opportunities and I was nervous. But let's also admit that the first goal came against the run of play.

I think everyone here enjoys the site. The information posted is always good.
I mentioned on another post that someone went and posted comments with my name/moniker in a different forum/article. That, in my opinion, has to stop. At the very least people should be man enough to stand by comments. If you want to tweak someone, say it. Bryan/SCB has. He may be overboard on some/most of his comments, but he's also made good ones.
I'm sure people will say the same about mine. Then again maybe not.

But to be completely honest, at the time I thought you were doing the updates for live football commentary for these games. I was misinformed badly and was completely wrong. But if you at it from a stranger's view, how was anyone supposed to know it was a sportinguista doing commentary for yesterday's game? That's probably something that should be mentioned.

If you would like me to take it down I will try and it's really not a problem. I'm sorry I offended you. I know your very passionate about portuguese soccer and your allowed to love Rui Costa. That's not anybody's concern though.
I didn't make the petition to actually remove you from this site. Although the title is completely stupid and I tried my best to change it a month ago but it was a no go. It's one of these sites where once the title is there you can't change it. The only think I could edit was the description. At the end, I do mention that I wanted to apply pressure to stop the bias. That really was my concern. I'm going to try to take it down. Till then I ask everyone to not sign it. Please don't sign it.

I made it to at least to put pressure to remove bias. Although now in a stupid way I realize all it's doing is creating arguments. I'm sorry I targeted towards you though. I'm sure the majority of people would say there's no bias but there are already some people who think there does exist bias. Even Arnauld here. I knew it was a bad decision of mine to do it but after seeing others report issues of bias I felt more motivated to do something. I just took action in the wrong way. Now that I think of it, it would have been easier emailing you guys any concerns I had. Regardless, what I did was entirely stupid.

I would like to thank Tom, Ben, Andy, and everyone else who gives us this fantastic website. I go on Portuguese soccer websites like abola as well, but I am not yet fluent in the language. Portugoal.net is an excellent source of unbiased news of Portuguese soccer. While I admire the passion of my fellow Portuguese from around the globe, the rude and childish comments are really annoying. Even if I don't agree with every comment, I respect them.

Some of these haters are running out of options. Benfica are still in the running for 4 of 4 cups. Only team in Portugal that is in that position. The hardest will be the Liga since Porto need to lose only TWO games on their own. So if we keep our keep pace up, its not impossible to still get it but it is the one out of our control. All the other cups are in our control and we are doing amazing on all fronts. I can't wait to see how this season ends and I'm very proud of how Benfica have preformed over the past several months.

... BryanSCB just got pwned by Ben Shave!

I'm a Watford fan, and my Portuguese team is Olhanense. Why do you think every opinion is part of a wider conspiracy?

People like you make me angry and amused at the same time. Do you think that myself, Tom, Andy, Marco, Sean and the other people that write for the site do this because we earn a truckload of cash? We do it because we love football in Portugal, and enjoy sharing our interests and opinions with other people who enjoy it as well.

And yeah I'm English, so what? For your information, I can read, write and speak Portuguese - not fluently, but I take the time and make the effort to learn, because I feel that it's the least I can do, given that the country has given me so much in terms of football, good times, whatever...nationality has nothing to do with it.

And how wrong must your readings be, if you thought that Tom (a Sportinguista, something he admits on this website) was biased against Sporting? As the guys on ESPN are fond of saying, come on man. And for the record, if you look at MY Twitter timeline I praise Sporting throughout for their improved performance.

If you want to continue this, feel free to email the website and Tom will forward it to me. But I think you owe me an apology, in all honesty.

Benfica has won 18 straight and deserve whatever credit they're being given. As for the "actual rankings" you are referencing, Its a complete joke! I don't know who is stupider. You for referencing it or A Bola for making it. Probably A Bola.

Classificação:
1. (1.) Inter (ITA), 304,0
2. (2.) Barcelona (ESP), 301,0
3. (4.) Real Madrid (ESP), 261,0
4. (3.) Bayern (ALE), 260,0
5. (6.) Internacional (BRA), 238,0
6. (9.) Manchester United (ING), 233,0
7. (6.) Estudiantes (ARG), 229,0
8. (5.) Liverpool (ING), 228,0
9. (8.) FC Porto (POR) 219,5
10. (11.) Chelsea (ING), 218
...
36. (48) Benfica (POR), 173
50. (50) Sporting (POR), 160,5
66. (69) SC Braga (POR), 147
181. (175) Marítimo (POR), 91,5
365. (345) Vitória de Guimarães (POR), 62,5

I really don't how many of the teams listed are in the top ten. Bayern just got beat up at home to a better Dortmund club. With Internacional, Estudantes, and Liverpool mentioned this has to be a joke! My apoligies to most for the long comment. I'm just trying to make a point.

If we Benfica go on to win this cup its not enough, the fact is we are still 8 points behind Porto and realistically theres not enough competition in the Portuguese league for Porto to drop so many points. We will pay the price in the end for selling our top players.

I was surprised Jesus went with nearly the same line-up from Sunday, but it was a smart move because he, like some Benfiquista's, knew that Sporting would bring it. Either team could've won today because both had their moments in the game, but I think Benfica were a tad bit more efficient. Anyways great derby and I hope to see Benfica win its third straight League Cup title on April 23.

Forca Benfica

I watched the game and after reading through the minute by minute I agree it is biased... to SPORTING. Benfica scored two, missed penalty, hit crossbar, had deflected shots just wide, forced Patricio into saves. Apart from the Matias save at the end and Santos shot what did Roberto have to do? Sporting put up a decent fight but let's face it, Benfica are in a different class. A more accurate scoreline would have been 5-2.

Bias is exactly right but what else would you expect from Benfiquista dot net. To prove the bias immediately after game ended where this site likes to show highlights of goals and highlights they completely left out the save Patricio made on Cardozo penalty. Last 25 mins of this game could of gone either way to either team. Yes Benfica was winning side but more deserving. ?????? Rare chances by Sporting give me a break.

Can you please stop some of the biased updating? It's getting a little ridiculous. "Rare chance for Sporting" WTF? Sporting had brilliant chances to score. I watched the whole game and your not fooling anybody except the people who didn't watch the game. You can tell looking at these updates it's "all about Benfica". Even though Benfica dominated it's not like Sporting didn't do anything. Postiga especially forced great plays and Yannick many great runs.

Benfica obviously had a hard time today winning let's be honest here. In some respect, if Matias scored, Benfica would have probably lost. Salvio and Coentrao with FAIL dives. LOLz! Coentrao made one of the worst dives I've ever seen in my life.

Game of the week is Braga- Benfica and I'm watching... I'm so EXCITED!

Easy Bryan. I also watched that game vs Fulham and Luis was outstanding. He once again made the mental mistake with his aggressiveness and gave up a penalty.
That being said, the penalty was missed so he didn't cost them anything.
Although he is still learning, he's far from overrated. Center Backs usually get better as they mature, and hopefully that will happen with Luis as well.
To give an example Terry (Chelsea) and Fredinand (Man United) are now overrated. They've both been bad and cost their respective teams. Terry has been exposed, but Ferdinand still has Vidic covering for a lot of his mistakes.
Will Luis over exuberance cost Chelsea at times. Yes. But he will learn from it with proper coaching. What he is, is definately NOT overrated.

It's guaranteed to be a 5 star match. Braga needs the practice against a solid team ( Benfica) to be confident when facing another solid team (liverpool).

Gongrats bryan/SCB. I'm officially jealous.

Matt I watched that match and Luis was fantastic. Let me add that Ramires also played really well.
I'm a Man United fan in the EPL, and it killed me to watch it. I was thrilled for Luis, and yes he should have been sent off with a second yellow, and I also love Ramires play. Luis brought a lot of energy to the club and if Ancelotti has any brains, he won't sit Drogba anymore. I really think that this win saved his job. If Chelsea had lost they would have been 5th, but now they're 4th and could easily pass City.
The fact was that Man united wasn't good enough. Rooney, Nani and Fletcher were bad, and others were just plain.

I'm going to the braga- benfica match. LOLz.

As Mdot and SLBTILLDEATH said it will be a tough for Benfica today..This game wont be a push over, and Im expecting a Sporting side that really wants to win..

I would agree that Benfica are likely to win but they are resting some players and therefore I think this can be a closer game then expected.