The top two pulled a way and are looking to make it a head-to-head match down the stretch. Meanwhile, Sporting got a big win, perhaps their best game of the season, defeating a strong Braga side in a lopsided match. Here is the recap of this week's action:
Rio Ave 1 Santa Clara 2
Nacional 4 Feirense 0
Guimaraes 2 Portimonense 0
Porto 2 Setubal 0
Belenenses SAD 0 Maritimo 1
Moreirense 2 Tondela 0
Chaves 1 Boavista 1
Sporting 3 Braga 0
Aves 0 Benfica 3
Standings
1. Porto 54 2. Benfica 53
3. Braga 49
4. Sporting 45
5. Moreirense 38
6. Guimaraes 35
7. Belenenses SAD 30
8. Rio Ave 28
9. Santa Clara 27
10. Portimonense 27
11. Tondela 23
12. Boavista 23
13. Maritimo 23
14. Nacional 23
15. Setubal 22
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16. Aves 21
17. Chaves 19
18. Feirense 14
In terms of big results, we have to start on Friday for what I consider to be the upset of the weekend. Santa Clara, who has been struggling, obtained a huge 3 points on the road against Rio Ave. Rio Ave has been perhaps the biggest disappointment of the season. With a team that went to get Coentrao amongst other players, more was expected this season. Just when it looks like the club is about to get a win streak together, they struggle again. Suddenly, they're only 7 points above the cutline and 5 points above the cluster of teams behind them nipping on their heels. The good news is there are lots of struggling teams so Rio Ave should survive. But it would be nice to see them play better soccer. Santa Clara needed this win, or they would be very close to the bottom.
Nacional recovered from the demolition in Lisbon with an impressive and dominant 4-0 victory against Feirense. I don't care who it was that Nacional was facing this week, they were going to win. Nacional wanted to prove they have a better team than what they showed. If this is the reaction from a 10-0 game, then this might save Nacional's season. Feirense, on the other hand, pretty much settled their fate as a for-sure relegated team. With 12 games remaining, Feirense will need to go on a bit of a run to stay up. The gap is now 8 to safety.
Sticking with the epic battle of the bottom that has been shaping up, Maritimo got an important win away from home against Belenenses SAD. Tondela was unable to defeat Moreirense, who had to win to maintain their 3 point gap from Guimaraes, who beat Portimonense in what is now a 2-horse race for 5th with Belenenses SAD falling back to the bottom pack a bit. Perhaps because of the lack of a home stadium? We shall see how this goes with them.
The bottom race now has a 2-point gap between 11th and 16th. Things are changing every week and it's getting quite interesting down there! Chaves with a disappointing tie at home in a game they would have wanted more. Now Chaves is going to look to take some points on the road at Benfica. All these bottom teams are going to look at their matches with the bigger clubs as a game to get big results that provide some momentum for their respective seasons.
Now on the top! Porto needed to get back to their winning ways and they did against Setubal, who faded to the last safe position in 15th. Porto knows Benfica is hot on their heels, and they need to keep it up especially with their injury woes. Things are tight at the top.
Benfica got a very difficult victory against Aves on Monday. With no Ferro and no Almeida for the Chaves game next Monday, they should have a tough going. Benfica needs to be careful because this was easily their worst game in some time. Things will not come easy, team needs to work more and avoid some awful fouls, like the ones Ruben Dias made today. He was very lucky not to be sent off.
Saving the best for last! Sporting was dominant in their win over Braga. Braga seems to really struggled in Lisbon this season. Sporting sees themselves within 4 of 3rd place Braga, but it will be very difficult to make up the gap to the top 2 who have pulled away.
Week 23 Games:
Fri. Feb 22 2pm: Braga vs. Belenenses SAD
Fri. Feb 22 4:15pm: Tondela vs. Porto (RTPi, Game of the Week)
Sat. Feb 23 10:30am: Feirense vs. Moreirense
Sat. Feb 23 1pm: Portimonense vs. Aves
Sat. Feb 23 3:30pm: Setubal vs. Guimaraes
Sun. Feb 24 10:30am: Santa Clara vs. Nacional
Sun.Feb 24 12:30pm: Boavista vs. Rio Ave
Mon. Feb 25 2pm: Maritimo vs. Sporting
Mon. Feb 25 4:15pm: Benfica vs. Chaves (BTV)
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