The Legendary Fisherman

What a crappy exhibition by Benfica. We still somehow managed a 1-1 draw with Sporting.

Now that was incredible.

Portuguese Results today just one match in Liga Nós (Yes new sponsor)

Porto beating Moreirense 2-0. Goals by Jackson Martinez (16 goals in 20 Matches man this guy is amazing hope to see him in a better League soon partially because I get scared everytime he plays Benfica) and Brazilian Casemiro.

Moreirense once again showing nice Football but Porto is just better. Just gonna say Moreirense is one of the most enjoyable teams to watch in the mid-table. Well tomorrow we have a Lisbon derby the big one Sporting Lisbon - SL Benfica. Great match of course I hope for a Benfica win but we will see.

The fact the supposed better teams in the weekend derbys apart from Juventus won makes me a bit nervous. Especially the 4-0 win by Atlético (Good goal by Tiago) on Real. Barça really must take advantage or they will be looking as fools.

A last word for Málaga shame on them a 4-1 loss against Levante?! Come on guys! I guess David Barral must be congratulated on a Hat-Trick!

Another Portuguese Goal today by young Rony Lopes (City fans you got a good Striker for the future I am glad you are letting him rotate in another good team) in the 2-1 away win against Montpellier.

Wolfsburg still second with a 3-0 win against Hoffenheim should be an interesting showdown in two weeks with Sporting for the Europa League (I personally think Sporting won't pass by Wolfsburg) Vieirinha as a Right Back is an interesting adaptation.

Why something tells me we might see Morocco and Algeria maybe even Tunisia joining UEFA after this debacle?

I am getting more and more impressed by Harry Kane's exibitions.

Hopefully his career goes better than the other Kane.

Nearly 20 years performing on the biggest stage in his industry, a couple of world titles and a job behind the scenes for life?

Considering most of those World Titles were on the B and C show it would equivalent to win a FA Cup or the Championship. Granted WWE's Kane did win the WWE Championship but that would be like a nomination for Player of the Season in the Premier League.

I am getting more and more impressed by Harry Kane's exibitions.

Hopefully his career goes better than the other Kane.

Does he post here?

He just did the silly banter.

Who's James?

Some random Tottenham fan.

Odegaard in Real Madrid? Guess Real is already preparing the sucessor to Cristiano. Nice move.

Not much market news today here in Portugal since yesterday we had the League Cup but Franco Jara from Benfica is rumoured to move on loan to Greek Champions Olympiakos until the end of the current season. A lot of clubs want the Argentinian Striker who could be a nice signing for a Leicester or Crystal Palace type Squad in my opinion.

The Buy-out option for Daniel Opare was revealed to be at €5M so anyone playing Besiktas in the upcoming Winter FM Patch 5M might be managable.

This one for James. Tottenham has been reported to have made a €7.8M offer on Algerian Striker Islam Slimani to Sporting. Personally I feel this is a great offer and a very nice buy by the Spurs but Sporting is said to find the offer a bit low.

Manchester City is reported to be interested in 17 year old striker Alex Silva who plays for the B Squad of Vitoria de Guimarães. The player just arrived on the club from the Sporting Academy and made his debut against Benfica B seems to have impressed the English Squad. A promising young player who could develop. Still young but hey if City wants him you better believe he could improve.

Not a bad result for the Spurs but maybe it could have been better. Still it is still anyone's game in the 2nd leg.

The 2000 Arrows were great thanks to their Supertec engines, they'd qualify badly, blitz through the field with some good overtaking thanks to their straight line speed, then inevitably retire when the engine blew up. Plus their sponsorship with Orange made the livery awesome.

The reason they qualified badly was because Arrows underpowered the engine during non-race sessions, because of the aformentioned issues with them being extremely unreliable.

The late 90's early 00's were great anyways because of the unreliable cars. You couldn't go a race without seeing at least 2-3 of the bigger names having to retire because their car broke down having pushed it too hard.

Last season was boring in retrospect, with the Mercedes cars being Germanicly efficient.

I agree I found last year's season to be very boring. There were some times when the Williams and Ricciardo tried to chellange them but it was very uncommon. Hopefully this season more teams improve.

And finalist from Group A is Benfica. Really happy as you can guess as we beat Moreirense 2-0 And scored a perfect scorecard 3 victories in 3 matches:

Group A

1st SL Benfica 9 PTS

2nd Moreirense 4 PTS

3rd Arouca 3 PTS

4th Nacional da Madeira 1 PT

Group C and D have two more Match Days to go though. Sporting lost to Belenenses in Restelo 3-2, Vitoria de Setúbal beat Vitoria de Guimarães 2-0.

In the Sporting match well I guess to you Scots the goals were scored by Scotland's Little Messi Ryan Gauld ex-Dundee United. Really talented young player.

The standing is as follows:

1st Sporting 6 PTS

2nd Belenenses 5 PTS

3rd Vitoria de Setúbal 4 PTS

4th Boavista 1 pt

5th Vitoria de Guimarães 0 pt

Still very open between the two Lisbon teams and my hometown club Vitoria de Setúbal.

Finally on Group D Porto and Braga scored a 1-1 draw while Académica scored a suprise win on Rio Ave 1-0:

The standings:

1st FC Porto 7 PTS

2nd Sporting Braga 4 PTS

3rd Académica 3 PTS

4th União 3 PTS

5th Rio Ave 0 PT

Porto is close to qualify just needs to draw with Académica. Though Academica needs to beat both FC Porto and União to qualify.But man was the match with Braga nasty one red card for each side and both goals were penaltys.

Good to see Eric Dier playing well.

Ah James you are watching it in White Hart Lane?

I don't mind doing it. Heck I will do it some later as there is some Portuguese League Cup matches today. If you wanna ask about a specific player or team feel free to do it. I will probably do the same regarding other leagues like the Premier League or even the MLS.

How are doing Boavista doing rebuilding from the Apito Dourado thing?

They are doing nicely with what little budget they have. Currently they are at 13th in the Standings 5 points ahead of relegation. They are also playing the current group stage of the League Cup in Sporting's group. They don't play today though. They also just hired a former Porto player in Slovak Marek Cech.

What an exibition by Courtois! I figure Liverpool might suffer for it in the 2nd Leg.

Sorry Tottenham fans but I am rooting for the underdogs. Go Sheffield United!

Well the first semi-finalist of the 2014/2015 Portuguese League Cup has been found and it is Marítimo from Madeira after beating Gil Vicente 1-0 and benefiting of the shocking 3-2 loss Estoril suffered in Covilhã with the local Sporting which is in the Portuguese Liga 2.

Final Classification of Group B:

1st Marítimo Madeira 7 PTS

2nd Sporting Covilhã 6 PTS

3rd Estoril 4 PTS

4th Gil Vicente 0 PTS

Sky sources are claiming that Chelsea are in talks with Fiorentina over Juan Cuadrado.

Would be good, seeing as we're playing them next month!

Would be an interesting signing by Chelsea.

Glad you guys enjoyed:

Here are some news from Sporting CP:

Sporting is looking already for Slimani's replacement following the news that Tottenham Hottspur is looking to sign the Algerian striker. The Egyptian Ahmed Hassan who plays for Portuguese Mid-Table Squad Rio Ave FC is there main target. Rio Ave has established a 1.5 Million price tag for the player who has scored 8 goals this season thus far. Sporting though is looking to lower the price to sign him. However FC Porto is also reported to also be in the run.

Sporting has loaned Brazilian Central Defender Mauricio to Serie A Squad SS.Lazio for circa 2.5 Million until end of the season with a forced buy-out option for the end of the season. This frees most likely a spot for Sporting to sign Portuguese International Ricardo Costa.

Sporting has also reportedly offered Cape-Verde International Heldon to MLS Squad New England Revolution however the player refused the loan. This after a fantastic first match in the African Cup of Nations leaves many to ponder the future of the player who despite barely playing this season is already emerging as Cape Verde's key player in this year's African Cup.

For Chelsea supporters well young Mexican player Ulisses Davila was sent on loan to Portuguese Squad Vitoria de Setúbal until end of the season.

Daniel Opare! I was wondering what happened to him a while back. Such a beast on FM08 and FM09.

Indeed he was. I remember him being one of the best young players in Real Madrid Castilla. Imagine my suprise last July when I saw Porto signing him for free from Standard Liege. His World Cup performance though wasn't really great and an injury really prevented him chellanging Danilo's spot in the starting 11. Heck even Portuguese Winger Ricardo Pereira and young prospect Victor Garcia had oportunities.

Is it just me or does the Force India car remind me of the old F1 car squad where Verstappen Sr raced for?

Anyway James who do you think is the favorite the win this season?

Some more market news from Portugal and also Europe:

Mozambique player Clésio has returned to SL Benfica from his loan to USNL clube Harrisburg Islanders. He is likely to be loaned to another club though. Not sure how he developed any supporter of Harrisburg here?

Young Portuguese Hélder Costa has been loaned by Benfica to Deportivo de la Coruna until the end of the season. He joins fellow Benfica players Ivan Cavaleiro, Sidnei and Luis Farina in the Spanish side.

Young Romário Balde who has been showcasing himself this season in the UEFA Youth League playing for the U19 of Benfica has refused to renew his contract and can sign for another club.

In FC Porto the major news is the selling of Portuguese International Silvestre Varela to Italian Squad Parma which is in last place of the Serie A. Varela played the first half of the season for Premier League Squad West Bromwhich Albion but his time there was plagued by Injuries. Joining him in Parma will be Uruguayan International Cristian Rodriguez on loan from Atlético Madrid.

Ghanese International and former Real Madrid player Daniel Opare has been loaned by Porto to Turkish squad Besiktas SK until the end of the season with a buy out option available. The Ghanese young player had left Standard Liege last Summer for free to sign for FC Porto but didn't play a single match in the current season being relegated to the B Squad. A potential good move by a former FM boy wonder that has been failing to become relevent in real life as he looks to relaunch his career.

Meanwhile rumours are running that Anderlecht is looking to sign Mexican International Central Defender Diego Reyes on loan until the end of the season. Steven Defour who played for FC Porto has apparently convinced Anderlecht staff to look to sign his former teammate who has been reduced to fourth option this season.

Wait just a second, where is the SPL in that list? :/

If you asked me five years ago it would have been in the top 10. Right now I would put it in around 13th place. Simply because it has been a one club show lately. Although I heard Aberdeen is chellanging Celtic this year.

If you wanna ask about a specific player or team feel free to do it..

I heard that this Eusebio fella is pretty good.

Too bad he died recently but yes he was a great player. He did play in the United States during some of his later career.

A general question about the standing of the Portuguese League, where would you rank it out of the European leagues? I think most people would say the Premier League, the Bundesliga and La Liga are the top three (I would say in that order as well, others may differ), then perhaps Serie A is a clear fourth and Ligue 1, Russian Premier League and Primeira Liga are battling for fifth. Would you view it the same?

Right now I would put it on par with the Russian League mainly because of the dominating clubs and how they perform in Europe. Same with the Dutch Eredivisie.

I would rank it as:

1 - Barclays Premier League

2 - La Liga

3 - German Bundesliga

4 - Ligue 1

5 - Serie A

6 - Russian Premier League

7 - Portuguese Liga 1

8 - Dutch Eredivisie

9 - Greek Superleague

10 - Turkish Superleague

Of course the late three would be bumped out in a world scene by the Brazilieirao, the Argentine Premier League and the Major League Soccer.

I don't mind doing it. Heck I will do it some later as there is some Portuguese League Cup matches today. If you wanna ask about a specific player or team feel free to do it. I will probably do the same regarding other leagues like the Premier League or even the MLS.