Portuguese football thread

As I seen there was no thread about portuguese football, I created one myself.

Any sympathies / dislikes (no problem, you can say Benfica:smiley-laughing002: ) regarding portuguese clubs or pretty much neutral? I know many of you would like to see the Benfica / Porto model implemented in Celtic so any questions about that subject I would be happy to answer them as well.

And of course, in here you can also discuss any other Ricardo that will eventually get linked to Celtic. After Ricardo the GK and Ricardo Horta, who knows, there is always Quaresma.


League table
1. Benfica - 70 points
2. Sporting - 63 points
3. Porto - 55 points


30k aways fans seen Benfica defeating Arouca in Aveiro today (0-2).









Benfica are now 2 points away from the title, while Sporting needs 2 more points to secure the 2nd spot and direct qualification to the UEFA Champions League group stage. Last time both Lisbon clubs finished ahead of Porto was in 1981/82.

 

Been to the Algarve twice once as a child,second time as an * will never be back a bigger bunch of ignorant * I've yet to meet,sorry my mistake I've been to Engerlund :bbpd:

 

Used to hate Porto since that game but not so much anymore tbh. Never been properly into Portuguese football but I've got a Benfica and Sporting top and Benfica seem soundest so they're probably my favourite Portuguese team. Although my opinion means * all on this.

 

The top I have. * used to love wearing it.

 

In lisbon im sure sporting are the upper class team and benfica are the under class team so im stuck in too minds who i like more tbh because well sporting play in green and white hoops.

 

@Luz: how come Arouca are playing in Aveiro? I was watching the match highlights yesterday and I knew Benfica were playing away from home but for the first few moments of that video I thought I read it wrong and that Benfica were the home team because the stadium was far too big and far too red for Arouca.

And any news on Oblak? They're saying he'll be ok and that it's just a concussion. But I doubt he'll be ready for Porto, will he? Also, what do you think, will he play against Juve or Artur?

 

Easy league to bet on:icon_mrgreen:

 

That's one controversial shirt:smiley-laughing002: Some loved it, some hated it. The pink colour was used by the rivals to tease us as well. At the end of the day, truth is it was the highest selling 2nd kit in quite a few years.

Arouca had a problem with the local government regarding the stadium they usually play in. They were asked to pay a fee too high and to do some maintenance in the field. The case will proceed in court. They had to find a solution and that's where Aveiro fits in the story. Biggest match revenue they ever had:icon_mrgreen:

He'll be alright. Probably needs a week rest. We'll be portuguese champions in the 20 of April if everything goes accordingly, from there on I expect Jorge Jesus to use the best 11 in other competitions. No more rotation in the Europa League, that's my believe.

 

Why are attendances so bad? Outside the "big three" it is mostly empty stadiums.

 

Benfica, Sporting, Porto, Braga, Vitória (Guimarães) and Boavista are the only clubs with a relevant number of fans. More than half the first division lacks fanbase. Add that to the economical crisis and low quality of our football and I would say that's the answer.

Considering the ratio fans:attendances I would say the example to follow are the Vitória fans. Always 10-15k in their home games and good support in the away matches as well. They are an exception among the smaller clubs however.

 

Who do Benfica hate more? Sporting or Porto?

 

Currently our strongest rivalry is with Porto, but we usually describe Sporting as rivals and Porto as enemies. Sporting are our historic rival and opponent in the local derby. Porto are a bunch of twats who decided to buy refs and intimidate anyone who could spread their influence in the way to the top. Unfortunately, justice wasn't served and the case Apito Dourado was just another sad event in portuguese football.

In this video you can hear Sven-Goran Eriksson describe his visit to Porto stadium as a Benfica manager,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=i-rmajA6GDU#t=158

 

Cool

In the top post you mention the Benfica/Porto model. What actually is this "model"? How much money do you actually make, seeing as you can deal with third party ownership (something I don't think we can)?

Are Benfica moving towards a more Sporting style Academia set up now with the overall success in the UEFA Youth League?

 

The model I was mentioning is the buy low / sell high. A thing that Lyon did for many years as well. Something necessary in order to be competitive without a rich league (TV rights) or a sugar daddy.

Funny you mentioned 3rd parties, that's exactly the problem of this in my opinion. There are two ways of envolving a 3rd agent, atleast looking at what portuguese clubs are doing. 1) let them have x % of the economic rights, in order to facilitate the buy 2) sell them x % of the economic rights after the player starts to shine. Usually, the 1) option works. That's the way Porto bought Hulk and Benfica bought Ramires and Lazar Markovic. Sometimes If you don't let some people with determinant influence keep part of the pass, the player won't sign. Problem is the 2) option, and the reason why Porto squad decreased in quality so much over this last couple of years. Sometimes they sell 20% of the player for let's say 3M€ and a couple of months later sell the player for 30M€. The guys who bought 20% receive 6M€ and do a 3M€ profit in a few months. Porto have been doing this for years (with Moutinho, for example), giving away money to some people at the expenses of the club itself.

Anyway, if the scouting is good it can definitely work. Portuguese clubs wouldn't be able to compete in any other way. The clubs still have debt, like Man. Utd or Real Madrid, but being constantly selling help them invest in good players. The team that have done it better in the last 5/6 years are Benfica; Porto, like I said, are losing much money in the process and keeping many people happy €. Their scouting is a bit worse than ours as well, many of the players they bought in this last years were scouted by Benfica. Reyes, Mangala, Alex Sandro, Danilo, James Rodriguez, Falcao and a couple more were in talks with Benfica first. Porto end up paying much more to sign them. Falcao was especially greedy, as we had already everything set up with him when Porto offered him a wage twice bigger. Benfica president refused to pay him the same and he signed for Porto.

As an example, in the video below you can see Matic replacement for the summer. Pawel Dawidowicz, 18y old polish defensive midfielder. Tall, can play with both feet and is more than the typical "6". The type of player Jorge Jesus wants in that position. Costed 1.8M€.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGXuhatILPk




Now answering the question about youth strategy.
For long years, Benfica were in the *. Had a once great but lacking maintenance stadium and no fields to train. Was around 2003/2004 that the new Estádio da Luz and Centro de Estágio do Seixal were built, and the current generations of young players are already "made in Seixal". These players reflect the heavy investment of more than a decade now. Benfica currently lead all the 3 (Iniciados, Juvenis, Juniores) portuguese youth championships and are the club with more players in the national teams as well. The B team, consisting of youth players, currently sits in 4th place of the portuguese second division. Ivan Cavaleiro, one of the players of that team, already got the chance to play alongside Ronaldo in the national team.

The investiment created very talented footballers that definitely need a chance. Hopefully something similar to Man. Utd or Bayern. Add these talented kids to a proper team so they can shine. However, the transition to senior football is always the biggest difficulty, I'm curious to see if we can start doing it effectively.

Some gifs of the biggest talent we have (Bernardo Silva, B team player, 19y old),
http://www.abload.de/img/bernardo1epbjm.gif
http://www.abload.de/img/bernardo1lzajk.gif
http://abload.de/img/bernardo3dbse7.gif
http://www.abload.de/img/bernardo4gbohq.gif
http://www.abload.de/img/bernardo319qgw.gif

Scoring against Barcelona in 2006,
http://www.abload.de/img/bernardo1t3oey.gif

Let's see how this and other players do the transition for the first team. For me, that's the most important step. But there's definitely the intention of a senior team "made in Seixal".

Sorry for the text wall, hope it's clear.

 

Benfica 3-1 Porto (Portuguese Cup semi-finals, 2nd leg)

16' Salvio scores (1-0)
27' Siqueira sent off (Benfica down to 10 men already)
Only * knowns when, but around 47' Varela scores (1-1)
50' Enzo scores (2-1 to Benfica)
79' André Gomes (3-1)
84' Jorge Jesus sent off
86' Porto manager sent off (nobody knows his name, not relevant)
88' Quaresma sent off (after 61', both teams have an equal number of players again)

3-2 on aggregate, Benfica does an epic remontada playing with 10 men most of the game and Jesus is now the * of Lisbon!

I'll be off now, EPIC *

 

Well done. Now just make sure you clinch the league title as well. And eliminate Juventus. Maybe this season will be the exact opposite of last year's.

 

Thanks for the kind words, sarcasmotron


Today there's a Belenenses - Sporting.
A Sporting victory mathematically confirms their 2nd place in the league and direct entrance in the CL group stage.
Draw or defeat crown Benfica as the portuguese league champions.


In other news, Adidas renewed the link to Benfica until 2021. The prior deal was around 4,5M€ per year, the new deal doubles that, 10M€ per year.

 

Sporting confirmed their 2nd place in the league yesterday.

Benfica - Olhanense, 6pm. 3 points needed for the long-awaited title.
http://gofirstrow.eu/watch/255338/1/watch-sl-benfica-vs-olhanense.html

 

Benfica bus arrival.

 

Well done!