After a year that saw them defeat Sporting, Benfica, and Porto in the league – ending Porto’s 58-league match unbeaten run and forcing them to share the record for the longest invincible streak in Europe’s top 6 leagues with Milan ‘91-’93 – as well as reach the Europa League quarterfinals, Braga hosted Benfica in the final Portuguese football match of 2022, taking the lead from a free kick as Abel Ruíz pounced on a bouncing ball and strike past Odysseas Vlachodimos after 64 seconds. The 22-year-old Spanish international would one-up himself 30 minutes later, picking up a pass from Iuri Medeiros in the middle of the box whilst being closely marked by Nicolás Otamendi, holding his composure and skipping above a lunging tackle from Florentino Luís before working it onto his other foot and passing it to captain Ricardo Horta, who launched a shot past Vlachodimos.

The Arsenalistas continued to push for a third goal and were able to deal comfortably with Benfica’s attacks, and their answer came in the 69th minute as goalkeeper Matheus Magalhães launched an inch-perfect pass towards the final third that Alexander Bah failed to deal with, as Medeiros flicked it past the Dane before setting up Ricardo Horta to drill it past Vlachodimos at the near post. Eight months after ending Porto’s historic streak with a goal from Horta, Braga’s captain once again responded with a brace to give Benfica their first loss of the season under new manager Roger Schmidt. After a summer that would see him become Braga’s all-time leading goalscorer and find himself the subject of an incessant transfer saga with Benfica, Horta remained put and has since begun his campaign with 9 goals and 6 assists in 23 appearances and become a regular in the Portugal national team for the first time in his career, scoring against South Korea in the final group stage match and coming off the bench in the following two.

At 28 years of age, he has emerged as one of the finest players in the Primeira Liga and played a crucial role in Braga’s impressive start to the season under new manager Artur Jorge, with the Bishops currently three points above Sporting, one behind Porto and six behind Benfica and boasting an attack that has scored 32 goals in 14 games. I’m expecting them to take care of business and come away from the Azores with three points as they face a Santa Clara side that is one point above the relegation play-off and that is enduring a dismal run of form that has seen them lose to lower-tier Leixōes and Feirense and draw to Oliveirense as well as lose to Arouca in the Taça da Liga, before closing out the year with a 1-0 defeat at Gil Vicente.