Primeira Liga

How close is this league at the top this season

Both Porto & Benfica have each played 19, won 15, drawn 4, lost 0, points 49

Each have scored 47 goals, Porto slightly edge it on away goals conceding 9 to Benficas 14.

Both teams last 5 matches go W D W W W

Fantastic race, not that anyone put a few give a damn.

They drew earlier in the season already and I wouldnt be surprised if they draw again..both teams unbeaten the entire season?

I actually watched the 2-2 tie between the two earlier this season

Cracking first 30 minutes with all 4 goals, but the game cooled off after that

Will probably tune into the return leg too tbh

I havent paied enought attention to the Portugese League thise season, i disapont myself

I always had a soft spot for Benfica and started casually following them during Miccoli's near legendary 2 year loan in 2005 to the club.

I've followed the title race when I can and have seen it along with Ligue 1 as one of the most exciting title races this year. Jorge Jesus is quite underrated in this forum and has gotten the team playing some fantastic football with superb consistency.

I'll definitely tune into the next O Classico and hope for Benfica to triumph over their fierce rivals.

Arquitecto wrote:I always had a soft spot for Benfica and started casually following them during Miccoli's near legendary 2 year loan in 2005 to the club.

I've followed the title race when I can and have seen it along with Ligue 1 as one of the most exciting title races this year. Jorge Jesus is quite underrated in this forum and has gotten the team playing some fantastic football with superb consistency.


I'll definitely tune into the next O Classico and hope for Benfica to triumph over their fierce rivals.

Good point, I am slightly confused as to why he has never been given a chance elsewhere. He been at Benfica a very long time now.

He has grown as a coach there too, a little more pragmatic than his earlier days but he always has some interesting different formations and fits players into different roles.

Di Maria and Ramires owe alot to him in my opinion.

The Franchise wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:I always had a soft spot for Benfica and started casually following them during Miccoli's near legendary 2 year loan in 2005 to the club.

I've followed the title race when I can and have seen it along with Ligue 1 as one of the most exciting title races this year. Jorge Jesus is quite underrated in this forum and has gotten the team playing some fantastic football with superb consistency.


I'll definitely tune into the next O Classico and hope for Benfica to triumph over their fierce rivals.

Good point, I am slightly confused as to why he has never been given a chance elsewhere. He been at Benfica a very long time now.

He has grown as a coach there too, a little more pragmatic than his earlier days but he always has some interesting different formations and fits players into different roles.

Di Maria and Ramires owe alot to him in my opinion.

Its quite impressive to see him serve so long in a club which is known to continually dispose of their managers so frequently. His initial pragmatic methodology served him well since the squad as a whole lacked balanced along with needing to rise from the inertia of Flores' poor string of results. His problem is that he doesn't sway from his sometimes predictable methods of adapting to the system or within a game and not addressing key points of weaknesses. As a whole he deserves tremendous praise for replicating his first season and having the 4-1-3-2 reinforced to some scintillating football and results. This forum is critical of him since typically, GL will judge a manager by a 2 legged fixture rather than over the basis of consistent string of games.

Now that he has established himself an important as a respected leader and figure within the Aguias, it has given him a sense of expanse and comfort in which he can more easily tinker and establish his own enterprise within the team which can only bring great results, if you can handle the wide array of choices presented and execute them with calculation. You can just see it with his more confident choices with an added conviction to them as the fans love him for it.

I'm sure many clubs would jump to acquire him yet he has no reason to leave such a historical club who respond to his needs very well.

Well put, nothing to add.

In hi first days, when he played a Maradona-ish 1 man midfield, I really had a bad impression of him..mostly because he didnt even change it for the big games where you knew they would have trouble containing the other teams midfield.

Perhaps he relied on Di Maria and Ramires incredible energy just a litte too much..forgetting they cannot be in 2 places at once, no matter how much stamina they had.

But he has changed that now he often fields a second midfielder when its needed.