Boavista v Vitória de Guimarães

The penultimate matchday of the 2021/22 Primeira Liga season kicks off on Friday as Boavista and Vitória, arguably the two teams with the biggest fanbases in Portugal outside of the Big Three, do battle at the Estádio do Bessa. Whilst Vitória began last Sunday’s action with a 1-1 draw against Santa Clara with a second-half penalty goal from Allano canceling out Óscar Estupiñán’s opener, Boavista followed it up with a trip to relegation battlers Moreirense. Kenji Gorré gave the visitors a lead in the 20th minute, picking up the ball just outside of the center circle, trotting into the box before picking his moment and cutting wide and firing a low shot past Mateus Pasinato.

 Moreirense would equalize in the 88th minute as Sori Mané picked out Godfried Frimpong with a delightful switch pass who headed it across the face of goal, with 40-year-old goalkeeper Rafael Bracali’s failed punch allowing Rafael Martins to slot in from close range. Within seconds, Boavista responded as Petar Musa chased down a hopeful long ball towards the edge of the box, accelerated past Pablo Santos, and took a touch past Pasinato before firing it into an empty net. The Croatian striker was promptly given his marching orders for the unforgivable crime of pumping his fist and jumping up and down to celebrate a winning goal, or in the referee’s words, provocation.

Boavista have secured their status in the top-flight for next season and have effectively nothing left to play for other than pride in 10th place, whilst Vitória are looking to erase a four-point gap on fifth-placed Gil Vicente in the final two games of the season. After guiding Paços de Ferreira to fifth place last season, Pepa is looking to do the same at Vitória, but he is nevertheless guaranteed to finish withinin the top six positions – sixth place would see Vitória compete in the Europa Conference League playoffs next season if Porto beat Tondela in the Taça de Portugal Final on May 22.

Petar Musa has scored 12 goals and 4 assists this season since joining Boavista on loan, his goal contributions making up 44% of the Axadrezados’ league goals, but he isn’t the only important player who’ll be unavailable for Petit on Friday. Ilija Vukotić and Sebastian Pérez, who started alongside Gaius Makouta in Boavista’s midfield trio, are both suspended, whilst Vitória are missing 21-year-old midfielder André Almeida.

Boavista began April with back-to-back wins against Arouca and Famalicão, before losing 4-0 to Marítimo and 3-0 to Sporting, the latter of which saw Venezuelan teenager Jeriel De Santis put in an ineffective performance up top in place of the suspended Musa. Vitória, meanwhile, began the month with a 1-0 win against Moreirense, a 1-0 loss to Porto, a 4-0 thrashing of Paços de Ferreira and 1-1 draws to Tondela and Santa Clara. With both managers missing key players in midfield and Petar Musa suspended, I’m backing this one to be a cagey, low-scoring fixture between two sides who don’t have much left to play for.

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Estoril Praia v Moreirense

The defining image of Moreirense’s 2-1 defeat to Boavista wasn’t Rafael Martins’ late equalizer or Petar Musa’s immediate response – it was Moreirense manager Ricardo Sá Pinto banging his fist into the glass dugout and yelling into his hands. A fit of rage that perhaps best sums up Moreirense’s season.

Moreirense have enjoyed the best spell in the club’s 83-year history since earning promotion to the top-flight in 2014, enjoying two comfortable mid table positions before avoiding the drop in 2016/17 whilst simultaneously winning its first ever top-level national title after beating Braga in the Taça da Liga Final. After narrowly staying up again, Moreirense achieved their best ever season and finished sixth under Ivo Vieira, before finishing eighth in consecutive seasons. Today, they sit one point above Belenenses-SAD, one point behind Tondela in the relegation play-off spot, four points behind Arouca and six points behind Vizela. They will end the season by hosting Vizela, and prior to doing so, they’ll be looking to pick up a massive result against an Estoril side that has sealed safety and is out of the race for European football.

Moreirense ended 2021 with a 1-0 win against Estoril thanks to an early goal from Rafael Martins, before following it up with a 2-1 loss to Tondela and a 1-0 win against Vizela on January 8. Since then, they have kept just one clean sheet – a 2-0 win against Tondela on April 16 – but have nevertheless found the back of the net in three of their last four matches. The sole exception came in a 1-0 defeat to a rested Portimonense side who needed a victory to secure safety.

Estoril began March with a 0-0 draw to Gil Vicente and a 2-0 win against Portimonense, but they have kept just one clean sheet since – a stalemate against a Braga side that was suffering from a European hangover following their extra-time elimination to Rangers. Bruno Pinheiro’s side started the following month with a 2-1 defeat to Vizela before losing 2-0 to Santa Clara and drawing to Braga, following it up with a 2-2 draw against Belenenses-SAD, who, like Vizela and Moreirense, are fighting against the drop.

Both teams will be without starting defenders, with Portuguese right back Paulinho Mota getting sent off in the scuffle following Musa’s late winner. Estoril went down to 10 men on Friday as Venezuelan center back Nahuel Ferraresi saw red within 16 minutes, with Famalicão going on to win 3-1 and seal their status in the top-flight. With key attacking threats like Derik Lacerda and André Franco returning from suspension for both sides, I’m backing this one to follow a similar pattern to Estoril’s recent fixtures against relegation battlers like Famalicão, Vizela and Belenenses-SAD, with both teams finding the back of the net.

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Benfica v Porto

The final Clássico of the 2021/22 season will take place on Saturday as Sérgio Conceição’s Porto seek to clinch their first league title in two years at the Estádio da Luz with a win against Benfica. Porto have a six-point lead over Sporting with two games remaining and are all but confirmed to win the championship, but doing so at their other eternal rival’s backyard would be the icing on the cake.  They will close out their season at the Estádio de Dragão and play Estoril Praia, whilst Sporting travel to Portimonense and host Santa Clara – Benfica, on the other hand, will travel to Paços de Ferreira in a match that, no matter what, will see the Eagles finish third for the second straight season.

Porto drew 1-1 to Sporting in the first Clássico of the season on September 11, with Luís Diaz returning from playing and scoring with Colombia in Barranquilla less than 48 hours prior and scoring a golaço to snatch a point in the Estádio José Alvalade, a point that would not have transpired had it not been for the goalkeeping heroics of Diogo Costa, a 22-year-old who had become the regular starter for the first month in his Porto career due to the injury of Argentine veteran Agustín Marchesín, and who has since emerged as a starter for both club and country. 

Benfica began December with a 3-1 home defeat to Sporting and closed out the month with a 3-0 loss to Porto in the Taça de Portugal Round of 16. Brazilian striker Evanilson opened the scoring for the hosts whilst Vitinha doubled their lead in the seventh minute, with Evanilson adding to the scoreline in the 31st minute before getting his marching orders on the cusp of halftime. Despite playing down a man for 45 minutes, Porto would prevail in a second half that saw Nicolás Otamendi sent off in extra time. Porto prevailed 3-1 on December 30 in the final league match of the year with Fábio Vieira opening the scoring in the 34th minute and Pepê doubling the lead three minutes later. Roman Yaremchuk cut the lead in half within seconds of the restart after converting a low cross from Rafa Silva, but just when it looked like Benfica would have hope of a remontada, André Almeida saw red for lunging in studs up on Otávio in an effort to control a wild first touch. Mehdi Taremi sealed the deal in the second half as Porto preserved their unbeaten record, going on to defeat Sporting 3-1 on aggregate in the Taça de Portugal semifinals and drew 2-2 in the league to the defending champions in a match that saw five players sent off, four of them coming in the 101th minute and one of them – Sebastián Coates – coming in the 49th minute.

Benfica will be without Rafa Silva and should be expected to lose yet another Clássico in what has been a season to forget on the domestic level. Porto are on another level to Benfica right now and will be eager to save themselves the tension of playing for the title on the final day of the season and celebrate the championship in the final home match of the season against Estoril. Benfica meanwhile are guaranteed to finish third and go through the arduous task of preparing for the UEFA Champions League qualifiers in early August with a new manager in Roger Schmidt. 

The current PSV Eindhoven manager will be looking to avoid the fate of the last incoming manager in Jorge Jesus, whose elimination to Greek side PAOK saw Benfica forced to sell Rúben Dias to Manchester City due to lack of Champions League revenue. Whilst Benfica are already focusing on next season and a new coach, Porto have a chance to make lemonade after being given lemons – losing 1-0 in Braga and preventing them from breaking the record shared with Fabio Capello’s Milan of the longest unbeaten streak in Europe’s top six leagues of 58 matches. They have a chance to reclaim their status atop Portugal’s footballing hierarchy at the stadium of their archrivals, and I have a feeling they won’t disappoint.

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Portimonense v Sporting

After a week that saw them lose 2-0 to Benfica and get knocked out of the Taça de Portugal semifinals by Porto, Sporting responded with a 3-0 victory against Boavista before beating Gil Vicente 4-1, and they’ll be looking to end the season on a high note with wins against Portimonense and Santa Clara.

Portimonense pulled off the biggest shock upset from the early weeks of the season on October 3 when they defeated Benfica 1-0, winning at the Estádio de Luz for the first time in club history and handing Jorge Jesus’ side their first defeat of the season. Paulo Sérgio’s side followed it up by losing 3-0 to Porto and 3-2 to Sporting to close out the year, with the Algarvian team taking the lead via a Matheus Reis own goal in the 21st minute before going down to 10 men after halftime as Pedro Sá was sent off. It proved to be enough for Sporting to exploit, as much-maligned striker Paulinho scored a hat-trick within 18 minutes to lead them to a comeback victory.

They have since lost 2-1 to Benfica and 7-0 to Porto, a match that saw them play a heavily rotated side to prevent starting players to pick up a booking and miss the following match against Moreirense, where they would go on to achieve safety with a 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from Wélinton Junior and heroics between the sticks from Samuel Portugal, both of whom were rested in order to prevent a booking.

After a bright start to the campaign, Portimonense have stumbled through 2022 and have just about managed to get across the finish line, but they look set to pick up a second straight defeat after losing 1-0 to Arouca at the weekend. Both sides will be without veteran center backs in Willyan and Luis Neto, and Sporting have more than enough firepower to punish Portimonense and pick up another high-scoring victory.

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