A twist or two in Portugal's three way tussle

The weekend of January 16th-18th or Jornada 18 could be looked back on as a crucial turning point in the title race in Portugal's Liga NOS. This season is providing us with one of the more exciting title races in recent years and that is in no small part down to the presence of a third side in the mix.

The twists of this weekend's round of games began on Friday as Sporting Club de Portugal, who are that third side to join the usual duo of Porto and Benfica, hosted bottom side Tondela. Many were expecting a routine victory for Jorge Jesús' men but it didn't turn out that way. Instead the plucky opponents, who are in the top flight for the first time, managed to get out of Lisbon with a point. What will irk Jesús is the fact that Sporting were 2-1 up in this game after an hour

Rui Patrício is dismissed

source: AFP 

with goals from Islam Slimani and Gelson cancelling out Nathan Junior's first half penalty. That penalty came as a result of Rui Patrício clashing with Nathan Junior. The keeper appeared to get the ball but referee Luís Ferreira pointed to the spot and Junior stepped up and converted.
Super sub Salva Chamorro made an instant impact when he latched onto Bruno Monteiro's punt up forward to slot past Marcelo Boeck to earn Tondela a precious point.

Benfica were in action on Saturday up the road in Estoril. It seemed like they would be going on to drop points when their lowly opponents took an early lead through Léo Bonatini. However Benfica responded with 2nd half goals from Kostas Mitroglu, introduced at half time and

Pizzi makes it 2-1
source: agencia

Pizzi. A vital win in a key week for Benfica. Benfica had last Sunday's game with Nacional abandoned due to fog and had to replay the remaining minutes the following day. They didn't seem unsettled by it and in the end did run out 4-1 winners. This 2-1 victory at Estoril leaves the Estádio da Luz side 2nd just two points behind Sporting.

This brings us onto tonight's game involving Vitória Guimarães and Porto. A Porto victory would've put them into 2nd on the head-to-head with Benfica and just two points behind Sporting. However Porto were awful tonight. An early blunder by Iker Casillas allowed Bouba Saré to pounce and give Vitória the lead, a lead they would not relinquish. Porto's final ball was non existent and when Vincent Aboubakar fluffed his lines in the 2nd half from five yards you got the feeling Porto weren't going to get anything from the game. To compound Porto's misery they had Aboubakar sent off in stoppage time for possibly the harshest sending off of the season. His first yellow card in the first half was apparently for simulation but replays showed it was an attempt to head in a cross and his second yellow was for a hand ball although it was not intentional. In any case the defeat leaves Porto five points behind Sporting and three behind Benfica. We are expecting to see a new manager in place at the Dragão for next weekend's game with Marítimo with many reports suggesting that the man in the home dugout tonight, Sérgio Conceição might be the man to lead Porto for the rest of the season.

A special mention should go to Vitória tonight, they played very well and I was impressed with goalkeeper João Miguel Silva. The young keeper dealt with everything Porto through at him. Left back Dalbert Henrique was a rock out wide and for me was man of the match until he was withdrawn in the final quarter-hour with a knock. The team itself defended very well and this win edges them up to Europa League contention with Paços de Ferreira and rivals Sporting Braga.

Next weekend Benfica host Arouca, Sporting are off to Paços de Ferreira and Porto host Madeiran side Marítimo. With just under half the season remaining, expect more thrills and spills from Portugal's three way tussle for supremacy.