Another week has passed in Portugal and we’ve had all sorts of shenanigans and action going on. There’s been a trophy decided, transfers in and out, and a rather curious opening ceremony as well as another round of league action. Let’s see what happened this week in Portugal:<\/p>\n
Liga NOS action took a back seat at the weekend as the Portuguese League Cup took centre stage in Braga. Yes, despite Braga not making it to the final four, the last three matches of the tournament were held in one place across a couple of days.<\/p>\n
The semis threw up a Clasico in the form of Sporting taking on league leaders Porto. The match was a generally drab affair with Porto much the better side overall. Sporting did hit the post in normal time through Sebastian Coates but Porto had a goal ruled out for offisde by VAR with Soares deemed to be just off. It was a very tight decision.<\/p>\n
The score was 0-0 at full time which meant a penalty shootout immediately afterwards. Yacine Brahimi hit the post at the crucial time for Porto which allowed former Fulham man Bryan Ruiz to stroke the ball past Iker Casillas and send Sporting to the final. The double whammy for Porto is the loss of Danilo Pereira for around the next month or so due to injury.<\/p>\n
The other semi final saw struggling Vitoria Setubal take on surprise package of the tournament, second tier Oliveirense. Oliveirense can certainly feel hard done by here, hitting the woodwork twice and being denied time and again by some good goalkeeping as well as missing a penalty. In the end, Vitoria just about survived with a clean sheet and had a huge thanks to owe to Goncalo Pacienca who opened the scoring and set up the second in the 2-0 win.<\/p>\n
That set up the final a couple of nights later where Sporting would secure the first trophy of the season but only by the absolute skin of their teeth. They fell behind to the impressive Pacienca inside four minutes and could have been two or three ahead but for some poor finishing. Sporting began to crank up the pressure and they were, quite literally, handed the equaliser by Podstawski. What looked like a phenomenal triple save actually turned out to be a double save and then a Podstawski save. Quite why he did it boggles the mind but he did, VAR caught him and Bas Dost sent the tie into penalties. Poor Podstawski would crack the crossbar at the crucial moment from the spot which allowed William Carvalho, with a slip and all, to slot home and secure another League Cup for Sporting.<\/p>\n
The drama wasn’t the only real talking point coming from Portugal’s League Cup final. No, the opening ceremony garnered some attention too if, for nothing else, being really f**king weird.<\/p>\n
Imagine if you will that it’s fancy dress at school and you and your pals decide to go as Mario Kart together. You divvy up the roles and all your mates are the obstacles you get on the courses. Of course, their parents aren’t very arty and, well, produce this:<\/p>\n
\nHow do you celebrate a League Cup final? With men in cardboard suits, of course pic.twitter.com\/XdZc9Gmqlm<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Tiago Est\u00eav\u00e3o (@TiagoEstv) January 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n