Europa League qualification.

Down to the wire

Benfica and Sporting won their weekend matches by the narrowest of margins to leave it ‘as you were’ at the top of the Primeira Liga.

With FC Porto and SC Braga contesting the Portuguese Cup final, a sixth place finish will guarantee Europa League qualification.
Four teams are in contention to finish fifth and sixth with Rio Ave and new boys Arouca looking favourites.

Benfica were a goal down in just fourteen seconds at home to Vitória de Setúbal thanks to a André Claro strike. Top scorer Jonas and former Olhanense centre-back Jardel scored within five minutes of each other midway through the first-half to turn around the result.
Benfica dominated the first-half and should have put the game to bed, but some wayward finishing combined with excellent goalkeeping from Luís Nunes kept the score at 2-1 at the interval.
It appeared that the Eagles would be picking up the three points until stoppage time when Pizzi played an awful back pass straight into the path of Vitória forward Arnold but the alert Benfica keeper Ederson rushed out of his box to prevent a dramatic equaliser.
The reigning champions have now won twenty-one and lost just one of their last twenty-three league games. Sporting Lisbon stay two points behind the leaders after a disjointed 1-0 victory at Moreirense.
Hot shot Slimani tapped in a Schelotto cross after fifteen minutes although replays showed the Algerian marksman benefited from an offside position. Just before the interval Sporting had the ball in the net again, but this time Téo Gutierrez’s strike was ruled out for offside but TV replays suggested the linesman got it wrong again.
On the day that FC Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa was re-elected club president, continuing his 34-year reign at the helm of the club, the Dragons put recent poor results behind them with a commanding 4-0 home victory over Nacional. Silvestre Varela netted after just two minutes and Mexican midfielder Hector Herrera soon added a second.
Danilo and Aboubakar increased the tally in the second-half. Paços de Ferreira and Estoril are still in with a shout of playing European football next season. Paços moved into seventh following a thrilling 4-3 win at União da Madeira, teenage sensation Diogo Jota scoring the winner in the final minute.
The 19-year-old, who has been sold to Atletico Madrid, has now notched thirteen goals in all competitions this season. Estoril edged past Boavista thanks to a late Paulo Vinicius own goal.