1. |
|
Fabregas, Cesc |
2. |
|
Handanovic, Samir |
3. |
|
Messi, Lionel |
4. |
|
Baptista, Julio |
5. |
|
Robben, Arjen |
6. |
|
Walcott, Theo |
7. |
|
Gourcuff, Yoann |
8. |
|
Crespo, Hernan |
9. |
|
Gallas, William |
10. |
|
Higuain, Gonzalo |
* By clicking on the arrows next to a player's name, you can vote for or against him. Voting is possible only if you are registered. You can do this for any of the thousands of players in our database by browsing through the countries, leagues and teams in the menu.
FC Porto appear to be sailing away with the Portuguese Liga, even at this early stage. They’ve won all of their six games, conceding just one goal in the process.
The latest victims were neighbours Boavista (2-0) who, although slightly improved from recent dismal performances, were no match for Porto’s ruthlessness and the Liga’s top scorer, the Argentinian Lisandro López, who netted both goals to bring his tally to six.
It was a weekend of derbies. In the Lisbon clássico, Benfica and Sporting ground out a 0-0 draw, a result that only benefited arch rivals Porto, leaving the Lisbon clubs eight and seven points behind, respectively. The game was marked by a series of controversial refereeing decisions, par for the course so far in the young Liga season.
There was another one in the northern derby between Vitória de Guimarães and Sporting Braga. Early in the second half, Geromel headed goalwards from a corner and it looked like Andrés Madrid had cleared off the line, but a goal was given. The result puts pressure on Braga coach Jorge Costa, the former Porto captain, who will be looking over his shoulder after a disappointing start. Vitória, on the other hand, are having a whale of a time; they have just returned to the top flight and currently lie third. If they keep up their momentum, they will be one of the surprise teams of the Liga. The other one at the moment is Madeiran side Marítimo, led by former Brazil coach Sebastião Lazaroni, who are second, despite only drawing 1-1 at Estrela da Amadora.
Last week saw the first appearance of the top teams in this year’s new competition, the Carlsberg Cup (Taça da Liga), which only involves teams from the top two divisions. The Big Three saw it as a chance to rest some key players, and that decision came back and hit FC Porto on the nose. In any given tie in the first three rounds, the team that finished lower in the league last season played at home, which meant that Porto had to travel to minnows Fátima, newly promoted to the Liga de Honra. Fátima ran Porto ragged at times and got their just reward by killing the giants on penalties after the game had finished goalless (cue a wave of ‘Miracle in Fátima’-style headlines). Fátima have been drawn at Sporting in the next round.
Sporting also needed penalties to see off Vitória de Guimarães, as did Benfica at Estrela da Amadora … but they did benefit from an invented one during normal time to equalise and take the game to a shoot-out. Those mysterious refereeing decisions, once again …
This week, Portugal’s European representatives (FC Porto, Sporting and Benfica in the Champions League, Sporting Braga, Belenenses, Paços de Ferreira and União de Leiria in the UEFA Cup) return to duty. They will hope to improve on a disastrous series of results two weeks ago: out of seven games, six were lost, with just Porto getting a point from their home draw against Liverpool.
