footballportugal

liga
fiztures/results

videos

**********
podcast
**********

footballportugal

results/tables
03-04 /  02-03
news
march 04 / feb 04 / jan 04 / dec 03 / nov 03
oct 03 / sep 03 / july-aug 03 / june 03

19/05/04

The new SuperLiga season will begin on 29 August of this year (one week after the SuperTaça Cândido de Oliveira - between the winners of the SuperLiga and the Taça de Portugal, FC Porto and Benfica, respectively) and end on 22 May 2005.

11/05/04

Final Day numbers:

20 - Benni McCarthy was the top scorer of the season, but he needed a hat-trick in FC Porto's 3-1 win over Paços to pip Nacional's Adriano (19) for the Silver Boot. Boavista's Ricardo Sousa was the top Portuguese scorer with 14.
2 - The number of Portuguese players in the top ten. The other was Benfica's Simão with 12.
63 - McCarthy's hat-trick also helped Porto to pip Benfica (62) as the top scorers of the season. Poor old Estrela da Amadora were the lowest scorers with just 22 goals from 34 games.
63,000 - The attendance at the Luz for the final game, all biting their nails as União de Leiria held Benfica to a  0-0 draw. Sporting were winning at Vitória de Guimarães and would have gone second if União had managed to sneak a win.
3 - the number of games Sporting lost in the last four games to let Benfica catch them at the tape.
21 - The number of home games Benfica had gone before Sunday without failing to score.
19 - Porto won across the board; they also conceded the fewest goals. Estrela were once again at the other extreme. They conceded 74 (!)
0 - the number of games that Porto drew at home.
0 - the number of games that Porto lost at home.

(See final results and tables)

10/05/04

Everything was decided in the SuperLiga and Liga de Honra Sunday. Benfica clinched second place, behind FC Porto and ahead of Sporting. Alverca were the third club to go down after Estrela da Amadora and Paços de Ferreira. Estoril were champions of the Liga de Honra and go up with Penafiel and Vitória de Setúbal . Down from the Liga de Honra and into the Segunda B go Portimonense, Sporting Covilhã and União de Madeira.

08/05/04

The crucial Vitória de Guimarães v Sporting game this weekend will, after all, be open to the public after the Liga decided to suspend its ban on the Vitória stadium. The ban was initially put into place because of the  conduct of Vitória fans towards the end of the season, notably at Paços de Ferreira.

04/05/04

Benfica leapfrogged over Sporting in the table Sunday when they beat their Lisbon rivals 1-0, Geovanni getting the all-important goal three minutes from time with a swinging shot from a full 30 metres. Benfica need only draw their last game, against União de Leiria, to clinch second and a place in the Champions League next season.

União have nothing to play for, but Sporting must travel to Vitória de Guimarães, who need at least a point to be sure of staying up. That match will be played behind closed doors following crowd trouble from Vitória fans at a recent game against Paços de Ferreira.

Geovanni's goal was followed by a mini-pitch invasion by about a dozen Sporting fans of the Juve Leo claque. The incident was badly handled by the police (only one 'fan' was arrested) and will ring alarm bells wih only a month or so to go before Euro 2004. Sporting president Dias da Cunha blamed Benfica's Argel and Zahovic for provoking the crowd.

Nacional (1-2 at Alverca), Sporting Braga (2-1 at home to Académica) and Marítimo (2-0 at home to Gil Vicente) all confirmed their tickets to the UEFA Cup.

Boavista missed out on Europe for the second successive year after losing 0-2 at União de Leiria , who jumped over them in the table. Beira-Mar, who had looked European material for much of the season but then slumped badly, beat Moreirense 1-0 and can still overtake them in mid-table.

Alverca, Académica and Gil are three of the five teams who can still go down. One of them or Vitória de Guimarães (1-0 at already relegated Estrela da Amadora) or Belenenses (1-1 at already relegated Paços de Ferreira) will take the drop, with Alverca the team in the worst position (see table).

Going into the last day, Brazilian striker Adriano of Nacional is top scorer in the Superliga with 18 goals, followed by Benni McCarthy on 17. (see table)

Replacing the three clubs going down will be Estoril Praia, who were already promoted before the weekend, Vitória de Setúbal, straight back up, and Penafiel, who have been out of the top flight for a decade or so. Former national team coach António Oliveira is now president of Penafiel.

01/05/04

On the penultimate day of the Superliga, FC Porto lost only their second game of the season, 0-1 at Rio Ave. On a pond of a pitch, neither side was able to play any football to speak of, but it was Rio Ave who had the stroke of luck that gave them the three points, Miguelito cutting in from the left and shooting low, the ball squirming between the legs of stand-in 'keeper Nuno and in. Rio ave had Mozer and Danielson sent off, Porto Ricardo Fernandes.

Porto's starting line-up contained none of the players that will probably start the Champions League Semi-Final second leg on Tuesday, but it did contain the Ninja, Derlei, starting for the first time since early in the season when he suffered a serious knee injury in a game at Alverca. Friday's game was a chance to field two players who can now officially qualify as 'champions': Pedro Ribeiro and Evaldo.

Rio Ave climb to fifth and look certain to 'qualify' for Europe ... only they can't because they didn't duly register with UEFA. This is a great shame because Carlos Brito has constructed a well-disciplined team with some exceptional individual players, such as Evandro (15 goals) and Miguelito. In any event, the team has beaten its own record of points for a season (48, as opposed to 46 in 1997/98)