Ladies and gentlemen, we officially have a race! Suddenly, there are 3 teams within 2 points for the championship lead when just a couple weeks ago it appeared that Porto would run away with it. Here are the Week 21 results:
Moreirense 1 Porto 1
Maritimo 0 Aves 1
Portimonense 0 Rio Ave 1
Tondela 1 Guimaraes 0
Boavista 1 Santa Clara 0
Braga 2 Chaves 1
Benfica 10 Nacional 0
Feirense 1 Sporting 3
Setubal 0 Belenenses SAD 0
Standings
1 Porto 51
2 Benfica 50
3 Braga 49
4 Sporting 42
5 Moreirense 35
6 Guimaraes 32
7 Belenenses SAD 30
8 Rio Ave 28
9 Portimonense 27
10 Santa Clara 24
11 Tondela 23
12 Setubal 22
13 Boavista 22
14 Aves 21
15 Maritimo 20
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16 Nacional 20
17 Chaves 18
18 Feirense 14
Let's start in the obvious place: that's not a typo. Benfica scored 10 goals in a historic night where the team had 8 different goal scorers. Clearly, the team is in top notch form, winning games and playing at an elevated level. Very very impressive to say the least.
All this is compounded by the Porto draw to 5th place Moreirense. No, this is not a shocking result and frankly Porto has only lost points to teams in the top 6. We can't look at this as Porto falling apart, they are not. We have a team who naturally lost some points to higher rated teams, perhaps showing their biggest flaw is respecting the better teams of the league. Porto has played well, but not scored much recently. They've opened the door to a tight race down the stretch.
Joining in this tight race is Braga, who had a very tight match with Chaves. If Chaves continues to play like this, they may salvage their season. Ahead of Chaves is a group of teams that are not out of reach (more on this below). Braga has moved to within 2 points of the leader and 1 of second. They are the real deal, and they have Porto and Benfica coming to their home. They are certainly in the race and are serious contenders for this championship.
Looking to claw back to this championship fight is Sporting, who moved to within 9 of Porto, 8 of 2nd place Benfica and 7 of Braga. Still a long way to go, but even though it was the last place team Sporting needed to get back to victories after back-to-back Benfica defeats.
Returning to Moreirense, they pulled out a bit more of a gap with that draw against Porto. Why? Because Guimaraes lost to Tondela. Luis Castro's team is struggling and it appears Moreirense is taking the game to them. This race for 5th should be fun.
Speaking of races, the battle at the bottom is exceptional. We currently have 3 points separating 11th through 16th (16th gets you relegated). Every team is in danger in this group, but this week saw a couple things happen that may begin to change things up.
First of all, let's start right at the bottom. Feirense's loss to Sporting leaves them still 6 points from safety, but with many teams playing better this task becomes more and more difficult by the week. It's now or never for Feirense.
In the penultimate position we find Chaves, who had a surprising second half lead versus Braga on the road. Unfortunately, things didn't work out and they lost. But with this kind of effort, and being 2 points away from safety, Chaves is not at all out of it and can salvage their season. Tiago Fernandes is showing his talent and that he is a capable first league manager.
Moving onto where things get interesting: The Madeira teams. Let's start with the obvious one, Nacional. When you lose a match 10-0, something is definitely wrong. Not to discredit Benfica because they clearly are playing very well, Nacional just did not show up. This team has struggled but it could not have gone any worse than that demoralizing defeat. The hope for Nacional is they treat that as just an isolated game, but this game will be hard to get over. Nacional is now in a relegation position. First move: expect Costinha to exit as manager.
Maritimo is struggling once again as well, falling to a tie of the relegation with Nacional. Petit has not been able to get things going, and this is the worst Maritimo of many years. Maritimo needs to string some results together or they will be a shocking team on the way down.
Boavista with a big win moved to the good side of the relegation battle. Lito Vidigal appears to be making a difference. As for the team Vidigal left, Setubal has a tough game against Porto next week. Should be interesting to see what comes up.
What to watch for Week 22: Sporting vs Braga. The green team is looking to get back in the race at the top. But Braga looks to continue their recent form and defeat Sporting in Lisbon. This should be a great game! Aves has been moving up, and they will play at home against Benfica. Certainly should be a great match given where Aves is trending, nothing Augusto Inacio likes to do more than shock big teams. Chaves-Boavista and Nacional-Feirense puts teams in the relegation fight, very important head-to-head matches.
Fri Feb 15 3:30pm EST - Rio Ave vs. Santa Clara
Sat Feb 16 10:30am EST - Nacional vs. Feirense
Sat Feb 16 1:00pm EST - Guimaraes vs. Portimonense
Sat Feb 16 3:30pm EST - Porto vs. Setubal
Sun Feb 17 10:00am EST - Belenenses SAD vs. Maritimo
Sun Feb 17 10:00am EST - Moreirense vs. Tondela
Sun Feb 17 12:30pm EST - Chaves vs. Boavista
Sun Feb 17 3:00pm EST - Sporting vs. Braga (Game of the Week)
Mon Feb 18 3:15pm EST - Aves vs. Benfica (RTPi)
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