Benfica draw hands Porto title
Farce in Marinha Grande on frantic Sunday
 Sunday’s Liga programme saw Benfica’s 2-2 draw at Rio Ave hand FC Porto their eighth title in ten seasons, and there was also high drama in Marinha Grande, where Uniao de Leiria fielded just eight starters in their crunch relegation battle with Feirense. Ben Shave rounds up the action.
Leiria 0-4 Feirense
 In one of the more memorable episodes of the 2011/12 season, the run-up to this fixture saw sixteen members of the Leiria squad unilaterally cancel their playing contracts, following up to four months of unpaid wages in some cases. That left coach Jose Dominguez with just six seniors and two juniors for this match, which pitted 16th against 15th.
Incredibly, the eight men managed to hold out for nearly the entire first half, before Miguel Pedro broke the deadlock in stoppage time. Pedro Queiros added a second soon after the restart, before Pedro grabbed his second of the game just before the hour mark. Buval completed the rout moments before the final whistle.
Off the pitch, LPFP President Mario Figueiredo made an appearance in Marinha Grande, informing journalists that the absent squad members had rejected an offer of half what they were owed by the club. This has not been verified by the players, but following the final whistle, outgoing Leiria President Joao Bartolomeu described former captain Marco Soares as “a traitor”, and stated that legal action would be taken against those who had refused to play.
The result lifts Feirense out of the relegation zone, something that given the circumstances will surely incense Academica, who replace them in the bottom two. Leiria remain bottom, although at this point their struggles have moved well beyond the pitch.
Rio Ave 2-2 Benfica
 Benfica travelled north to Vila do Conde knowing that nothing less than victory would be enough to keep Porto from securing a second consecutive title this weekend. Jorge Jesus kept faith with Joan Capdevila at left back, whilst Nemanja Matic replaced Javi Garcia in the midfield. Rio Ave began the game hoping to seal their top-flight status for another season.
Bruno Cesar stung Huanderson’s palms with a snap shot early on, but Rio Ave came out of the traps faster and looked to stretch Benfica from the off. With nine minutes gone, they were ahead. A surging run from right back Jean Sony left Capdevila for dust, and Sony’s centre caught both Luisao and Maxi unawares, allowing Christian Atsu – the young forward on loan at Rio Ave from Porto – the time and space needed to tap home.
 It was a deserved lead for the home side, who continued to defend in numbers when not in possession, and break forward at pace when Benfica’s moves broke down. Witsel and Nolito attempted to thread passes through for Cardozo, but as the half unfolded there was a distinct air of frustration to the Eagles’ play.
This frustration was embodied by Nolito, who after a fine display against Maritimo last weekend appeared equally up for battle. The Spaniard was a bundle of energy (both well-directed and less so), marking himself out as the most likely source of an equaliser. So it proved. A fine Bruno Cesar free kick caused chaos in the Rio Ave six-yard box, and there was Nolito to turn home from close range.
.jpg) Galvanised, Benfica threw themselves forward in search of a second, and it arrived three minutes later. Cardozo was challenged by Gaspar as he attempted to pick his way through the Rio Ave back line, and the defender’s outstretched leg clearly tripped the Paraguayan, who stepped up and crashed home from the penalty spot; completing an unlikely three-minute turnaround before the interval.
Benfica looked to have established a solid foundation for the second half, but five minutes after the restart they were pegged back by Rio Ave, again thanks to some slack defending. Jean Sony burst forward on the counter attack, and was able to find Yazalde, criminally unmarked by the Benfica back line. The wide man timed his leap perfectly and headed beyond Artur.
 The remaining 40 minutes were marked by increasingly frantic attempts from Benfica to find a way through, but the Eagles were unable to convert their possession into goals. Rio Ave goalkeeper Huanderson was on inspired form, producing a succession of fine saves to deny Saviola, whilst referee Olegario Benquerenca waved away a pair of penalty appeals late on.
The result leaves Benfica unable to overhaul Porto, who have a six-point lead and a superior head-to-head record with two matches remaining. The Dragons will celebrate a second consecutive title at home to Sporting next Sunday.
Goals
[1-0] Atsu 9’
[1-1] Nolito 37’
[1-2] Cardozo 40’
Rio Ave: Huanderson; Jean Sony, Jeferson, Gaspar, Tiago Pinto; Vitor Gomes, Bruno China, Tarantini (Braga 63’); Kelvin (Mendes 85’), Yazalde (Joao Tomas 89’), Atsu.
Benfica: Artur; Maxi Pereira, Luisao, Garay, Capdevila; Matic (Saviola 45’), Witsel; Bruno Cesar (Gaitan 71’), Aimar (Javi Garcia 68’), Nolito; Cardozo.
Beira-Mar 2-0 Pacos de Ferreira
 An ill-tempered affair in Aveiro saw Beira-Mar secure their top-flight status for another season, despite finishing with only nine men after the dismissals of Zhang and Nildo. An early penalty from Artur gave the home side a half-time lead, and Balboa made sure of the points midway through the second period. Pacos also saw Vitor sent off late in the first half.
Setubal 0-3 Nacional
With both sides already safe from the drop, there was little in the way of urgency on display at the Bonfim. It was Setubal who appeared to be further along in their trundling journey towards the summer break, as Jose Mota’s side surrendered meekly to their in-form opponents. Diego Barcelos opened the scoring with just five minutes gone, before Mario Rondon produced a twelve-minute brace to render the game over as a contest with just 34 minutes played.
Ben Shave
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Plus, in your unexplainable hatred for Benfica you also write false information: Duarte Gomes is not a Benfica sócio, he's only a supporter. He stopped being sócio after he started a career as a referee.
Congratulations to Porto and hat off to Vítor Pereira, who took all the blows all season long and still managed to come out looking pretty good.
As to Benfica, I know that their calendar was much more difficult than other candidates', but that's no excuse for a team that aims for more than one title each season. To blame the referees is also a joke, after miserable displays like this one and the one against Guimarães.
The inquest towards our failure will go on for the next few weeks. Many posters such as Orlando have been really hard on JJ all season long. I kept defending his unyielding devotion to playing attacking football for all matches... but in the long-run this season JJ's tactics have failed us in the end. Our weakness in defence was just never improved. If we were able to keep clean sheets this season, how many more points would we have won...draws would've been wins! A team has to be able to defend well to win titles, will JJ's teams ever be able to defend well? I'm starting to think probably not!!!
It took him a whole season to figure out that a World Cup and European Championship winning defender was our best option to play left-back...playing Nolito regularly now at the end of the season is like adding insult to injury, where was he for all the crunch matches in Feb and March? His goals-minutes played ratio is surely one of the highest in all of Europe this season. Btw, i think both Gaitan and Garcia are definite confirmed gonners now. Why are they suddenly being left on the bench? The Benfica board clearly doesn't want to risk injuries to their two most valued players. I for one would'nt mind seeing them go though, with the money they would bring in we could get better replacements for both positions.
So this leads to the inevitable question, should JJ remain as our manager next season? I personally am still undecided, and can see the pros and cons of him staying or leaving! It's not great to keep chopping and changing managers. Having said that it is tempting to think of the great managers out there who could be realistically convinced to take over next season...Rijkaard, Van Gaal, Scolari, Pellegrini...to name a few... would probably do much better with this talented squad we have, than JJ was able to.
What i definitely want to see next season whoever the coach is...are more Portuguese players in our first team...if you can't win the title by playing an entirely foreign first 11...then it is clearly time to start giving local talent much more of a chance. Next season I personally would like to see Eduardo become first choice keeper (Artur made good saves, but ultimately conceded too many goals all season), for us to get Silvio on loan from Atletico (versatile defender who'd improve our defence big-time)...and talented youngsters like Nelson Oliveira and David Simao given much more of a chance in the first team. Roll on next season!!!
Rui, the stadium was necessary for the Euros. I'm proud to have hosted them.
But the fact remains that Leiria, like many other clubs in the league, do nothing to outreach to the community.nthey should get more involved in the city and area they occupy. They do nothing. The mayor of Leiria came out and said that Leiria brought nothing to the city. I believe him.
Setubal also does nothing to solidify any sort of support.
I would like to know what Leiria's president as received while the players have gotten nothing.
There was an interview with one of the players that went back to Brazil, who said players had to beg and borrow money for transportation and food. Borrow? If so, this needs to be looked into.
I have no sympathy for these clubs. They are run into the ground by blowhards that think hey know best, when in fact they just pocket money while complaining about their circumstances.
Guimaraes should also be investigated thoroughly, as to where the 9 mil they received from Bebe went.
It's going to happen to Poland/Ukraine and Brazil too. They will build large stadiums that will be barely used after the tournaments ends.
Next year is Sporting's year...
Fact is the Portugal league has turned into a complete joke. I cant believe the FPF would let the game be played.
As a Portuguese fan, I'm very disappointed in Porto not being able to get out of the Group Stages of the Champions League and getting knocked out of Europa right away. It will hurt out coefficient. As for celebrating Porto fans, please remember that you would've laughed at anyone if they would have told you this is the way the season would have gone. Porto could and should have done more.
As for Benfica, very disappointing. We stumbled too often and I truly feel we should have beaten Chelsea and reach the Semis of the CL. The losses we incurred verse Porto just wasn't good enough either.
I know I'll get killed, but I think that JJ could come back next season. These players know him and should respond. For those who want him out, I ask who should come in. Paciencia has been tarnished. If you told me Pellegrini was to come in, I would say ok. I don't want to see a revolving door.
Lastly, 2nd place was achieved and that was very important. We needed to secure the guaranteed Group Stage spot.
Leiria. Boy it doesn't get more pathetic, does it. The club was thrown out of the city whose name they bear. I don't feel sorry for this club at all. The president, who keeps spouting legal action, should be thrown in jail himself for not complying with contracts he has made with players and his former city, for that matter. It's ridiculous for him condemning players that haven't received wages in over four months and having the balls to get them to accept half of what they're owed. Not all of hese guys are wealthy and have families and bills to take care of. If I was he players, I would sue the club, the league and the FPF. How this was allowed to go on, is a travesty.
If this doesn't scream out how expanding the league is foolish and downright bad business, I don't know what will. A complete embarrassment.
I know Academica has been mentioned in how it's not fair to them. They haven't exactly finished strong themselves. If they had at least won the last few matches, then maybe I would have more sympathy.
By the way, Leiria shouldn't be relegated to the Liga de Honra. They should go by the way of Estrela de Amadora and drop to the non professional ranks.
Braga should be able to hang onto the 3rd spot which will bring the CL qualifying spot. I'll be curious to see what Braga will do with their squad. They actually have an older squad than the Big 3, and some could be gone.
Sporting is finishing strong and that's all you can ask for at this point.
Maritimo ran out of gas.
I am thrilled for Gil Vicente. They will finish 6th in overall attendance and shown really well this season. I hope they can build on it.
I'm also happy to see that Beira Mar will stay up. Even though they struggled, it will be nice to continue to have their stadium in the 1st league. They should also finish 8th in attendance, which isn't bad for a struggling club.
I am a UDL fan and it pains me to see the club struggling so badly. At least the side took to the field and try to honour the fixture - it wouldn't have been unreasonable to forfeit under the circumstances. I can hope things improve. It seems a long time ago since I watched UDL beat Braga 1-0 at Marinha Grande in October.
I agree with Raffy's point, Porto won the Liga for being the most consistent, but never looked great at all this season, and failed miserably on the biggest stage of all: Europe (both tournaments!). Benfica started off the first half of the season as clearly the best team in Portugal, but our capitulation since february means we didn't deserve to win the title in the end. I admit to that completely. Sporting were excellent in the Europa League but very poor in the Liga. While Braga faded heavily in the title race, when they were in such a good position just a few weeks ago.
Having said that, i can say this with confidence: of all the big 4, I would say that the only one who ended up having a better season than what probably even they expected themselves, was Braga. They faded in the end, but to have been title contenders in the latter stages of the season was nothing short of fantastic for a club of their size and resources. Congrats to them on their great season. But for the other 3, it has not been as good as it should've been..and that is clear.. and a Liga title, a Bwin Cup and a Europa league semi-final cannot mask this fact for any of them. All 3 have to improve next year...
I think Benfica is versing Leiria next week do you think any of the Leiria players are looking forward to that?
Leiria did the only thing they could and field the only registered players they had. I feel sorry for Leiria but four months without paying player wages is shameful.
What a sad state the Liga is in, and they want to expand? We should be downsizing if anything.
Poor Acedemica, they were doing so well at the beginning of the season. I hope they stay up.
Oh and Congrats to Porto. All in all its been a lousy season with the exception of Braga and Sporting in the Euro. Its depressing to admit but I have been paying more attention to the Spanish and English leagues this year.
Seriously it would have been better to get a few players from a local district team to make up for the numbers but they did nothing and threw their players under the bus. Im absolutely disgusted.
After a great start to the year it has been a disappointing one, this Porto team was rather meh and none of the other teams could capitalise on it i dont think anyone really deserved the title this year, the team that won it was simply the team who just stuck it out the longest and showed the most desire because Benfica showed us nothing in the 2nd half of the year.
Im also rather angry with how Braga and Maritimo are finishing up the year i hate when teams just undo all their good work.
Here I was stating in the last few weeks that we should at least win our last (very win-able) 4 matches of the season to make sure Porto had to work to win the title. And what do we do, hand the title over to them with 2 matches still to play by failing to beat Rio Ave tonight. That is a joke really and it's hard to make an argument now that we deserved to be champions in the end. We were undeniably the best team in Portugal up until February. But the reality is that sadly all that hard work we did until then was thrown out the window by seriously failing to respond to the slump that started with that defeat in Russia. We simply haven't looked like the same team since that defeat, and it's cost us hugely.
As for JJ..well in the last few weeks I for one was still thinking he should be given another season with this talented squad we have. But at the time I was still anticipating that we would push Porto right to the end, and some of the recent performaces, particularly against Sporting and again tonight, have started to make me believe otherwise. To hand Porto the title by failing to beat Rio Ave tonight is very poor, and I'm starting to think perhaps a change is needed. I still think we had the best squad of players in Portugal this season (even some Porto fans have been saying the same thing on this site)...yet we didn't win the Liga. This must ask serious questions of the ability of our coach. I dunno, I'm still undecided at this moment. The Benfica board have a big decision to make over the next few weeks...clearly!!
As a Benfica fan, this season is much more disappointing than last season since for most of the year, we were definitely the better team. I think that the champions league, costly injuries, and poor form in the end of the season all contributed to a hugely disappointing climax.
We are proud of what we accomplished in Europe, but we really shouldn't have let the title slip away. As for Jorge Jesus, he's had his successes, but I think it's time for a change. His squad selections have left much to be desired, and I think that a better tactical coach would get the best out of Benfica.
I wonder how many other clubs have witheld wages. Leiria wouldn't be the only one.
sad state of affairs in Liga with most clubs not even solvent
Lets merge with the Spanish league!