Sporting Braga v Sporting CP
Sporting Braga v Sporting CP
Sunday October 11th, 2026
Estádio Municipal de Braga
Matchday 8
The warm up
In the early rounds of the new season I do like to look back on the previous campaign as a reminder of how well our opponents got on. Time for the annual joke on my part, which isn't really a joke, more a statement of fact. Clearly no need to check - they'll have finished 4th. Their record played 34, won 16, drawn 11 and lost 7, GF 64, GA 36. That total of goals scored was only 2 less than the eventual league champions FC Porto, however their goals against was exactly double of the dragons. Much like the lions their form in the last weeks of the season was hampered by a succesful run in Europe in which they reached the Europa League semi-finals eventually losing to Freiburg. A valiant effort nonetheless losing 4-3 over two legs, they were ultimately undone by the sending off of Dorgeles after 6 minutes played in the second leg away. They would win just 1 of their remaining 7 league outings.
They had the 5th best home record, played 17, won 8, drawn 6, lost 3, GF 34, GA 18. Away from home the 4th best record, played 17, win 8, drawn 5, lost 4, GF 30, GA 18. Of the 59 scored in total 35 were from open play, 10 set pieces, 16 penalties and 3 own goals. They slightly outperformed their xG of 57.9.
Fourth best attack by goals scored on average per match (1.9), fifth best defence by goals conceded on average per match (1.1). Top for average posession at 62.9% above the lions with 61.8% in second. 12 clean sheets in total. Fourth for average shots on target per match (4.7), 41 big chances missed. Only FC Porto had fewer accurate long balls per game (19.4) meaning you're unlikely to see their defence wrap their foot around the ball and get it launched. They had more penalties awarded in the league that anyone with a total of 17. Interestingly in the Europa League they were only awarded 1 but as you'll see on their matchday breakdowns later on in this post they're certainly getting more in the Conference League this time around.
Top scorer last season was a gentleman by the name of Rodrigo Zalazar, not sure what has happened to him since. He got 16 in total, ten from the penalty spot and claimed the most assists with 5. Ricardo Horto scored 14, Pau Víctor with 10, Fran Navarro had 6 and the rest shared between 11 players.
Zalazar of course we know went to Sporting for a club record transfer fee of €30m. Selling you top scorer is always gone to be a wrench for any club but equally as big a miss will be Lukás Hornícek in goal who joined Premier League Newcastle United. The Czech was probably only bettered in recent seasons by Diogo Costa at FC Porto. Sporting fans had been looking forward to seeing what Diogo Travossos could do in the green and white after a great season out on loan with Moreirense last time out. In fact the player himself was hyped at the prospect only to be used as a make weight in the Zalazar deal. I don't know why but all summer recording their transfers I've had a mental image of an old man carefully counting out his pennies with the exact change for each purchase. Only time will tell whether their signings all work out but they certainly appear to have done some sensible deals and aren't subject to the premium that appears to be imposed on the lions of late in terms of fees paid. Huge number of players going out the door it has to be said but cutting waste is never a bad thing.
You could claim to some degree that it was Braga who ultimately detailed Sporting's bid to win three titles back to back although of course they weren't the sole reason. An extended Champions League run, lack of squad depth and a spate of injuries all contributed to a massive drop off in the final weeks. However, that being said if you put back the four points we dropped against them from winning positions and similarly against AVS and Tondela in the final few games and they’d have won a third title. Ifs, buts and maybes. It is what it is as the kids say. It would surely become dull to be like Bayern München. We may not have gotten a sixth ever title winner in the league last time out but the lions played a huge part in Vitória and Torreense winning a Taça apiece. That's good for Portuguese football even if it's terrible for us. In much the same way as Braga reaching the Europa League semi finals was also a huge positive for Portugal. The issues from a small subsection of fans come with raised expectations after two straight title wins. Perhaps it's a generation thing with a sense of entitlement they're not actually privileged enough to own?
So lest you need reminding, at the José Alvalade Luis Suárez’s 18th minute goal was cancelled out by a Zalazar penalty 6 minutes past the 90 for 1-1. In March the same thing, except they were leading 2-1 and Zalazar equalised from the penalty spot 5 minutes past the 90. I think it's fair to suggest that last season my irrational hatred of them was certainly made far more rational. At least this season it won't be Zalazar who scores, though it did cost us €30m to solve that problem.
You'll find many Matchday previews online I'm sure, most of which will tell you very little other than a brief synopsis of the recent form for both sides playing. They're normally tied in with sites plastered in gambling advertising. The Portuguese press previews are more like a game of whack-a-mole with infuriating pop up adverts or messages to continue reading. Why couldn't I just have continued reading from where I was at? Why do I need to click a fucking button? I like to keep it simple for you dear reader because if it's annoying for me, then I reason that it surely will be for you all too. I try to imagine what you might like to read if you were sat on a train journey with time to kill. I assume you're more likely to be a Sportinguista reading these, therefore as a general rule of thumb my focus until the game itself is on the opposition. What can I teach you that will make you sound like an expert to your unsuspecting mates? The problem with that is after three seasons of doing it, unless there's huge changes afoot over the summer months with our opponents I begin to hit a saturation point. With Braga I've already done the QSI shared ownership angle, I've done the history of how their stadium was built, talked to death about my irrational hatred of the side I like to call the Fraggles and of course how they always finish fourth. So if you want more historical background you can search for Braga in the top corner and have a nose around. This one will be more lions centric today. I'm having to go early in my bid to implore certain small sub sections of the fanbase to engage their brains and wind their necks in.
In life I find those with the most to say on a given subject, generally also have the least to say on the subject. It's just a wall of noise with no sustenance. Statistics with no added context repeated by the echo chamber of fans who think they're football experts. I've already had one moan in the Famalicão match preview so you'll forgive me a second if you will, I'm putting it down to age. To my eternal surprise I appear to have mellowed, dare I even say matured. This from a man whose kids mother nicknamed him Peter Pan on account of the fact that in her opinion I'd never grow up. Stranger things happen at sea. Or maybe it's simply because being autistic allows you to see the bigger picture and coupled with life experience you see things for how you'd expect them to be and not how you would in a computer simulation.
I've talked plenty of times about expectation management so apologies if any of this is reading as familiar. If you set your sights high and they don't come to fruition then you're always going to be disappointed, that's a simple fact of life. Better to have little or no expectations and then be pleasantly surprised, than feel personally slighted. If you were one of those who thought Sporting should or moreover would win the league last season, then more fool you. I didn't at any point and I'm not saying that to take the moral high ground, but it does mean I'm not making myself look like an idiot throwing my toys out the pram when it didn't happen. I've said it before and I will spell it out again for those not paying enough attention the first time around - just because something feels personal to you, doesn't actually make it personal to you.
I find it baffling the way fans think they're in a computer simulation. Football isn't how you see it on football manager or FIFA or whatever game the kids are playing nowadays. You might sign ten players to your team and because you're pressing the buttons and they win you suddenly assume real football is like they and it's clearly not. There's decades of evidence to back that up. We view Viktor Gyökeres time as a lion as a huge success but if you go through the numbers of his first season, he didn't exactly set the world alight until after the midway point, then he found his form before falling away again in the final weeks with a knee injury. Only in the second season does he truly become the player we remember him for. That's an example of possibly one of the very best signings in Portuguese club football. Certainly there would be few if any that could match what he achieved in terms of attacking output since the turn of the new century or if ever. So if we know Viktor Gyökeres needed time to adjust then you can bet your bollocks to a barn door that the vast majority of players coming to a new club are going to need a long period of adjustment. That's true of whatever league they are plying their trade in and certainly not exclusive to Portugal and Sporting CP.
You read comments from fans who think that we should have kept Trincão, Gonçalves and Bragança. To the best of my knowledge only the third wanted to initially stay albeit the other two were on improved contracts already so I don't think they'd have downed tools had they not moved but they clearly wanted out. Bragança wanted a new contract that befitted his status at the time in his career. Sporting offered him exactly that, a contract which befitted the fact he's spent a large period of his career recovering from two serious injuries. Rather sensibly they didn't offer him a pay rise. Why should they? Because let's face it the likelihood is he'll suffer another spate of injuries which is more money down the drain from the clubs point of view. Even taking injuries aside he's never been a consistent starter. So toodle Pip old boy, off you fuck as well. If Pep Guardiola doesn't keep players who don't want to be there then why should we be any different? Please don't try to argue that Luis Suárez and Geny Catamo both wanted out this summer. If you're taking what's written online as gospel and repeating it then you're every bit as bad as the toe rags that started it all as far as I'm concerned.
Imagine for me if you would that in July you moved to a country where the mother tongue is really hard to learn. Let's call that country Portugal. You've got everyone around you speaking a language that you don't understand, you've left your homeland where everything is familiar and possibly a lot of friends and family behind too. You've taken a new role and in whatever that may be let's say you're going to be shown doing your job on national TV once a week or maybe twice. We'll allow you previous experience in the role but you're human and you're going to make the odd error and you're not going to get on with everyone you meet. Why? Because of the fact that you are human. Humans are fallible. Now imagine everything you do is analysed in intricate detail. You've got unfair expectations put on you by people you've never spoken to. Apparently Jean who was here for the past five years was so much better than you have been in the first month. Yes you fucking idiot because she was there five years and you don't remember how shit she was in the first three months. Now imagine every time you log into social media you're being hammered for misspelling something in an email. Just pure unadulterated dogs abuse thrown at you. You're the worst office assistant the world has ever seen. You'd be like - mate, wind your fucking neck in, I'm adjusting and finding my feet. I think you know where I'm going with that set of comparisons. Being a footballer is a paid profession in the same way as any other. You cannot have a different expectation for a footballer at a new job, just because their job is to either kick or catch a ball. I'll repeat it again: this is real life and not a football simulation on your computer. Every employee in whatever job they do is given time to adjust so tailor your expectations with footballers. Some might never adjust, some might adjust quicker than others. If you were being judged on 270 minutes in your new role and publicly told you were a downgrade you'd be well within your rights to go back at someone and point out that they're having a fucking giraffe. If you go early you stand a chance of making a massive cock out of yourself. Take West Ham who've just won 6-0 to go top of the Championship. Plenty of calls for him to be sacked after 3 games. Some people have literally no patience or trust in the process and think they've got a crystal ball and can see the future.
By the same token some people really are just fucking stupid. I am frequently caught out when I learn how stupid people are because for years I assumed everyone was like me and it turns out they're not and yet I'm still surprised. I'm used to being the smartest person in the room and frankly it's fucking frustrating. You just end up muttering the words dick head under your breath several times a day. So what's patently obvious to me isn't apparently to everyone so sometimes you're left having to spell it out I'm crayons. I'm not tarnishing everyone with the same brush I hasten to add. As I say, those who shout loudest invariably have the least to say.
Which do you want more, to support your club and see them win or to see them fail just so you can say you were right? Because it seems a frightening amount of people seem to wear the t-shirt of the latter camp. It's OK to admit you're wrong, people will actually think more of you for it which will come as a shock to some people to learn I'm sure. There's a reason I don't edit all the times I get things wrong in my matchday posts. One, I can't get accused of after timing and two, on the rare occasions I get a call right it won't kill you to have to give me some credit, you can think yeah we'll give you that one. Like after going a goal behind to Galatasaray and having looked really poor it only took one goal ruled offside for me to bet Sporting to win at 2/1 and announce it. Now I never claim to be a football expert. I write about what I see and from the context of a life lived. I have no qualms with being wrong however. In fact it's normally quite funny when I am wrong and I don't mind people laughing at my expense. I was right about the Galatasaray result. I didn't mention it again until now. It was just me saying I think they're there for the taking and I'm putting my money where my mouth is. No Sporting manager has now won more Champions League games at home than Rui Borges. The mister I was told by one fan last season was the worst coach in world football. Maybe I don't mind making a twat out of myself when there's some real thick cunts hiding in plain sight.
I'm fucking sick of the Rui Borges Boo Boys Brigade. It's boring now. Back to the work analogy above. If you had people calling you out on social media because of a mistake in your day job do you think that would help you the next day? Or would you feel better if people offered you support instead and admitted we all make mistakes, it'll come good in the end, keep at it? Oddly I might prefer the first one because I'm shit with praise but quite adept if you push me in a corner. I'll come out swinging don't you worry. But I'm old enough and ugly enough to appreciate that the vast majority would prefer the latter.
It is not unreasonable to ask fans for patience at the start of a new season. Stop comparing apples to oranges. Back to our Jean analogy from above, of course she's going to look better than the next person if you compare their body of work over a few years compared to a few weeks. That is not to say the next person in time will not measure up or surpass what Jean did. Fine if it transpires that Jean was still better then we'll always have the memories and give her, her flowers.
Many football fans think that the money spent on transfers is a key performance indicator and before a ball is kicked in anger a prediction of how a side will fair. Now Portugal may be the outlier, but studies have shown that it's the total wage bill of a football club and not the transfer spend that is the most critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to success on the pitch. That is a proven economic fact thoroughly researched by people far more intelligent than I. If the opposite were true then Liverpool would have won the Premier League title last season and Tottenham would win it this. I'm not going to explain the ins and outs but the general rule of thumb is that the club who pays the most in wages wins the league title. I say Portugal is the outlier because whilst it used to be true for Benfica on a regular basis, they've come off the rails in recent seasons and buck the trend. So if you're stupid enough to believe that in regards to outlays on transfer fees then I guess you'd be stupid enough to believe that real football should mirror FIFA on the the PS5 of whatever number they're on now. Football doesn't work like that. You don't bed flowers overnight. You have to cultivate them, water them, nurture them, protect them from the elements, give them support and time. Treat your football team in the same manner. Realise how fucking stupid you sound to fans of other clubs when you call for the head of the mister who has still only lost two league games since arriving in the December of 2024. Borges could lose every game between now and May and still probably have lost less then Tottenham in the same period. If what St Ruben of Amorim had built was so perfect then João Pereira would have won the title. Amorim wins his second title because the club had the patience not to fire him after his poor follow up season to the first one. I'd implore you to watch the finals weeks of the second title win and remind yourself how much they were out on their feet and basically crawled over the line. Recency bias is great but it doesn't actually make the past a bonified fact with your rose tinted glasses on. Yes there are issues under Rui Borges but there were equally as many under Amorim so don't kid yourself. Don't also kid yourself that a change of mister is a guaranteed solution. Months or hard work and planning go into a season and can be undone by just one or two errors over hundreds of minutes of football played. There are some things you cannot legislate for even if you took every conceivable caution beforehand. Shit happens.
You've a group of fans who criticise this team because they have mistakenly allowed themselves to believe they are the mister and have a games controller in their hands. Apparently they're privy to what goes on during training and tactics meetings. How are they able to get such great unfettered access? To the players' data and medical science? It must be incredible. Player X should be doing Y they scream. Based on what exactly? Cause I know the answer and it's on your interpretation of what you think they should be doing. You've no idea what Rui Borges and the coaching staff has instructed them to do. So unless you're taking your badges and you're doing it as part of your learning maybe just shut the fuck up. Stop writing that player X will never compare to player Y when your sample size is 540 minutes of football. You're making yourself sound Iike a thick cunt and you've clearly no idea you're doing it. Let the coaches coach and the supporters support. Stay in your fucking lane. Because none of it helps the club when you constantly undermine everything and question it like you're speaking from a position of authority just because you've watched a game of football and won a few seasons on football manager. Go have a crack at telling someone how to improve downforce on an F1 car and see how seriously people take your opinions then.
I am not suggesting we are going to win the league this season, or next, or the one after. But in the past I have made the point that when we have won the league title, just where all our title winning players originated from. Some of them might have left with superstar status, but they weren't arriving with it. Again, I repeat the phrase - expectations management. Because if you're claiming you always knew that any of our players was going to be a huge success then frankly you're lying to yourself because in football there are no guarantees. Your record signing could get injured climbing out the bath before they've even kicked a ball.
Sporting have a clear defined path and business model and that's not changing. We've done the ‘hire a big name manager on vast wages.’ Ask Bruno de Carvalho how they one worked out for all involved. Portuguese football has always been based on a player trading model. It's just now that Sporting are finally catching up and getting better at it. Varandas clearly trusts Rui Borges and sees him being here for the long haul and he's not exactly known for rolling over and having his belly tickled. He does what he thinks is best for the club and for him that's securing the long term financial security of the club. He is not about to do a BdC and bet the house on black. Not signing Yeremay Hernández isn't about a lack of ambition. It's about balancing the books and knowing at some point you're going to have to pay the bill. Because if they don't reach the Champions League one season then it's going to be hugely costly. We're talking tens of millions of Euros. We have gambled on Suárez and Zalazar. They're both huge outlays for their respective ages. But the reality is you only get the benefit of automatic qualification for the Champions League if you win the title. There's no monetary value for it in Portugal like there is in the Premier League. Whereas if you win one single champions league match you get somewhere in the region of €2m. So why do you think Varandas is happy with a mister who keeps winning in the champions league? You've got a set of fans calling for his head and a set of accountants going - don't you fucking dare sack him.
I've seen a lot of fans online criticise a lack of ambition for not breaking the bank for signing Yeremy Hernández by the way. They seem to have gone very quiet after his start to the La Liga season. Perhaps they're one and the same people who make up the Rui Borges Boo Boys Brigade. They're in their sleeper cells ready to be activated by a goal or a loss. He wasn't in the squad for their first game, played 17 minutes against Málaga, 17 against Valencia, 36 against Villarreal for a grand total of 70 minutes from a possible 360. His greatest contribution is one booking.
We're still shopping in Aldi and Lidl effectively for players. We massively overpaid for Luis Suárez. If spending the best part of €30m on a Spanish second division player made little financial sense then spending €50m on one would have made absolutely no sense at all. One day the bill is going to have to be paid. If you couldn't see that deal was never going to be done then you need your head examined. Como were prepared to trigger his full release clause last season but he didn't want to go. More fool him really given he'd now be a Champions League player. Sporting spent the summer upping their bids by €20. If they weren't going to pay €30m why the fuck do you think they'd then pay €50m. Why do you think our standard termination clause is set to €80m? It protects your investments. DLC did the same when they signed him to a new contract with a termination clause only Premier League clubs could ever actually trigger but his online value is given at £14m which is around €16.32m. Yet those fans whove checked their crystal balls genuinely expected Sporting to pay well over the odds for him based on how he performed in the Spanish second division. Not even Spaniards who live in towns and cities with a second division club can tell you what the real level of the league is like but we got burned with Kochorashvili, overpaid for Suárez, you can fuck off it you really think they should have done it for this kid. They'd have been better off keeping Alisson Santos who continues to impress at Napoli and at one 25th of the price reported for Yeremay. The real kicker in the debate is such a purchase would have blocked the development path of Flavio Gonçalves who's enjoying a terrific start to the campaign and who cost us €0. I've seen us win the league three times which is two more than I ever believed I would see. I've watched football for 40 seasons now so you'll forgive me in my old age that I'd rather see our kids given a chance even if we don't win anything. We never got to see Mateus Fernandes or Rafael Leão. We only got one season of Nuno Mendes. I want at least two full seasons of Mauro Couto in the next couple of years and the same with Gonçalves.
They talk about a premium of around £20m being attached to Premier League transfers. Don't kid yourselves that Sporting don't have a premium of sorts now attached when they come knocking. Some of the add ons are toe curling as well. €500,000 for Luis Suárez if he finished top goalscorer plus additional bonuses for goals scored which were more than we'd get for Gyökeres from Arsenal. We paid €1m on the Kochorashvili deal for qualifying for the Champions League this season. €1m might not sound much but we had to sell Mateus Fernandes to bankroll the second title win. Look how much that cost us long term.
If we were stacked with players between the ages of 26 to 32 then I'd admit there may well be cause for genuine concern. It's easy to forget how young some of our players actually are and therefore how little experience they could have at their age anyway. I'm not bothered by the loss of either Gonçalves or Trincão quite frankly. The former had lost his pace and other than the season he finished as top scorer in Portugal has never been exactly proficient with his output and his goals to shot ratio was frankly fucking appalling. Granted Trincão is a much bigger miss but ai always felt the space on the right was too overcrowded and made it hard for him, Geny and Fresneda to operate in at the same time. Geny has really benefitted from it and in the last two games Fresneda had found himself in good attacking positions centrally. For reference that's Nacional and Galatasaray and this is exactly one month out from the Braga game.
My worry is Inácio but then again he's been my worry pretty much ever since I clapped eyes on him. He doesn't have the leadership qualities of Coates, the defending talent of Diomande, the passing range of Debast or the ball carrying capabilities of Quaresma. Apart from that and he's prone to massive errors you can see what the fuss is about. I wrote it last time out but it's worth repeating, no central defender in Portugal, if he's that good would have made it past 2 or 3 seasons. This is now his seventh season. His SEVENTH. That is a mathematical impossibility that someone hasn't come in and offered Sporting a chunk of change for the kid if he was actually any good and we know he's not. There is no part of me that would be sad if AC Milano’s interest in him was genuine.
Credit to the mister for recognising how player overload had hurt them so badly last season and already taking steps in the first two months with rotations to combat it. He is far more savvy and intelligent than people want to give him credit for. I don't claim to be an expert as I've already said but even I can see that Amorim sides always struggled against a low block and hammered away until they found the first goal which forced their opponents to have to push out if they wanted to take something from the game. Whereas Borges will take the pragmatic approach in many games and does the opposite of what you'd expect and is happy to invite the pressure on to open up the space. Football isn't an exact science as we know but you're either being deliberately obtuse if you claim Rui Borges isn't a good coach or you don't know your arse from your elbow. Someone last season suggested that Ian Cathro at Estoril should be given the job. Some people say the most stupidest shit in attempting to sound clever of which I'm probably one but I'm convinced I make a much more reasoned argument. Especially when I say judge at the end of the season and we'll have a proper idea of where we are in this new cycle of the clubs history. Because we are at the start again. It'll either work or it won't. But it won't be for a lack of trying on the part of the mister, his staff and the players. For now we've five wins from six games. Two points dropped against Estrela the only actual damage. Benfica have drawn to Académico, Braga lost to Estrela. Porto got shown up by Manchester City in the Champions League. All the sides have their foibles and growing pains. Always be careful what you wish for. But be realistic please. Look at the squad in full below, the names of the clubs we've signed players from, the leagues those sides were in, the total number from the academy and the ages of some of them. There's some babies in that squad. I'd have had to have had Rui Silva at 16, but I'm now old enough to be everyone of their dads. But think about it you've got 8 academy players, only 2 over 30 years of age, the youngest player is just 17 and only one player came from the Premier League in the form of Guilherme who played a grand total of 121 Premier League minutes for the Hammers.
Average Age starting lineups to date at the time of writing:
Estrela 24.9
Vitoria 25.4
Alverca 24.9
Rio Ave 25.2
Nacional 25.2
Galatasaray 25.8
Sporting CP Squad 2026/27
Player - Club signed from (league at time) and age
Rui Silva - Real Betis (La Liga) 32
Kaique - Palmeiras (Serie A Brazil) 21
Diogo Callai - Academy 22
Georgios Vagiannidis - Panathinaikos (Greek Super League) 24
Iván Fresneda - Real Valladolid (La Liga) 21
Salvador Blopa - Academy 19
Zeno Debast - Anderlecht (Belgian Pro League) 22
Gonçalo Inácio - Academy 25
Ibrahmi Ba - Famalicão (Primeira Liga) 21
Eduardo Quaresma - Academy 24
Maxi Araújo - Toluca (Liga MX) 26
Moncef Zekri - Mechelen (Belgian Pro League) 17
Nuno Santos - Rio Ave (Primeira Liga) 31
Silas Anderson - Häcken (Allsvenskan) 22
Sergi Altimira - Real Betis (La Liga) 25
João Simões - Academy 19
Rodrigo Rodrigues - Gil Vicente (Primeira Liga) 18
Sotiris Alexandropoulos - Panathinaikos (Greek Super League) 24
Pedro Lima - AVS (Primeira Liga) 23
Issa Doumbia - Venezia (Serie B) 22
Nestory Irankunda - Watford (Championship) 20
Geny Catamo - Black Bulls (Was previously with Marítimo on loan in Liga 2) 25
Rodrigo Zalazar - Braga (Primeira Liga) 27
Jesse Derry - Chelsea U21 19
Luís Guilherme - West Ham (Premier League) 20
Flávio Gonçalves - Academy 19
Fotis Ioannidis - Panathinaikos (Greek Super League) 26
Rafael Nel - Academy 21
Luis Suárez - Almería (Segunda B) 28
Summer Transfer Window
Incoming
Diogo Travossos - Sporting CP £4.6m
Denis Huseinbasic - Köln Free
Gabriel Silva - Santa Clara £2.9m
Bernardo - Tondela £344,000
Sergio Barcia - Legia Warszawa £1.3m
Adrian Barjami - Luzern £2.4m
Jonas Wind - Wolfsburg Free
Adrian Barisic - Basel £3m
Jovan Milosevic - VfB Stuttgart €8m
Tomás Marqués - Barcelona £9.5m
Outgoing
Rodrigo Zalazar - Sporting CP €30m
Florian Grillitsch - released
Djibril Soumaré - Stoke (Free)
André Horta - Almería £1.3m
Samy Jr. Merheg - Alverca (Free)
Afonso Duarte - Santa Clara (Free)
Fredy - Santa Clara (Free)
Alaa Bellaarouch - Dinamo Bucuresti (Loan)
Ismaël Gharbi - Leganes (Loan)
Amine El Ouazzani - Angers (Loan)
Lukás Hornícek - Newcastle £26m
Francisco Chissumba - Alverca (Loan)
Paulo Oliveira - Released
Yanis da Rocha - Portimonense (Free)
Thiago Helguera - Atlético Madrileño (Loan)
Leonardo Lelo - Almería (Loan)
João Marques - Torreense (Loan)
Bartlomiej Wdowik - Jagiellonia Bialystok (Loan)
Luisinho - Feirense (Loan)
Jonatás Noro - Pafos (Free)
FK Železničar Pančevo 0 Braga 1
Europa Conference League Second Qualifying Round First Leg
A Ricardo Horta penalty on 66’ was enough to give last seasons Europa League
semi-finalists a one goal advantage to take into the second leg in Portugal
against the side from the Serbian SuperLiga.
Braga FK 4 Železničar Pančevo 0
Europa Conference League Second Qualifying Round Second Leg
Braga 1 Dinamo-Minsk 0
Europa Conference League Third Qualifying Round First Leg
For the third straight game Braga opened the scoring through a Ricardo Horta penalty, this time coming a minute before the end of the 45. The Portuguese take their narrow lead to Belarus for the return leg.
Matchday 1 - Moreirense (A) 2-2 D
Braga become the third of the traditional top four to finish with a 2-2 scoreline on Matchday 1 of the new season. Navarro opened the scoring after 6 minutes when he latched onto a long through ball in the area, cut back inbetween two defenders and got his shot away from ten yards. It didn't take the home side more than two minutes to equalise however as John leathered a shot past a crowd of defenders from 22 yards into the bottom right hand corner. Pau Victor put Braga back ahead on 65 minutes as he swept home from 7 yards following a run into the area. They looked destined for all 3 points before Veloso scored on 90 to level. It came in the most bizarre of circumstances. He was trying to find the head of a white shirt inside the area, the forward couldn't get his head on it however that ultimately proved to be of benefit as the cross became a shot and ended up in the right hand side of the goal from 30 yards out. Little wonder with the home sides two goals why their xG only amounted to a total of 0.21. The first was a superb finish but appropriately not high on the Xg and the second had the footballing Gods smiling down upon them.Xg 0.21 to 1.50
Total Attempts 7 - 13
Shots on target 3 - 4
Big Chances 1 - 2
Big Chances Missed 1 - 1
Matchday 2 - Gil Vicente (H) Match postponed due to illness
A rare night for the Fraggles as they didn't open the scoring through a penalty. In fact the game remained scoreless but the draw good enough to see Braga qualify for the league phase of the Europa Conference League proper. Given their exploits in the Europa League last season we can only hope they have a similar run this season to boost the Portuguese coefficient. A game of few opportunities despite Braga having the benefit of not playing over the weekend. Maybe still getting over the illness that caused the Gil Vicente match to be postponed on matchday 2 of the new Liga campaign.
xG 0.45 - 0.41
Total attempts 8 - 9
Shots on target 1 - 4
Matchday 2 - Vitória (H) 1-0 (Matchday 4 for VSC)
Owing to the postponed games for illness and european competition the Fraggles were playing only their second league game of the season. They were fortunate on 31' when Ndoye's first touch was like a trampoline on a high through ball which allowed Fontes to come and clear the ball away from the feet of the forward. There was a satisfying clank on 33' when Gómez saw his effort from wide right 12 yards from the goalline hit the right hand post and out to safety. Ten minutes later Pau Victor could only send the ball straight at Zych from 8 yards meaning the 2 sides went in level at the break at 0-0. Zych came to the rescue again on 72 when Milosevic was clean through only to fire straight at the keeper from 12 yards. Rodrigues finally broke the deadlock on 78' when his powerful 14 yard effort saw Zych get a hand to it only to see it continue into the net for the only goal of the game. First league win of the season for the Fraggles who sit ninth with two games in hand.
xG 0.83 - 0.23
Total Attempts 9 - 8
Shots on target 4 - 2
Big Chances 2 - 1
Big Chances Missed 2 - 1
Matchday 3 - Alverca (A) 1-2 W
Braga playing only their 3rd game of the season whereas for Alverca it was Matchday 5. 6 minutes in Dorgeles saw his low shot from 19 yards whistle past the right hand post of Mendes. On 25' a clumsy challenge inside the Braga penalty area by Rodrigues resulted in a penalty to the home side coolly converted a minute later by Chiquinho into the bottom left hand corner for 1-0. Five minutes into additional time at the end fof the 45 Sporting old-boy Diogo Travossos saw his shot from left of the area 12 yards from the goalline flash past the far post.
Four minutes into the second half proof of why zonal marking is such a bad idea as Pau Víctor tapped in from 10 yards unmarked from Tiknaz' low cross from the right. This despite having a line of 4 Alverca defenders in front of him. It's a novel concept but one of you maybe try marking a man. Not for the first time this season we see a shot cannon back of the post, direct to a teammate and result in a goal. On 56' Víctor Gómez saw his effort strike the right hand post from 17 yards, it flew back across the six yard box to Pau Víctor whose first touch admittedly wasn't great, but unmarked again he managed to still stab the ball home from 3 yards to make it 2-1. Few hearts in mouths when Vidigal whislted a 36 yard free kick past the right hand post a minute past the 90 but Braga held on for victory.
Total Attempts 6 - 16
Shots on target 2 - 6
Big Chances 2 - 4
Big Chances Missed 1 - 2
Matchday 4 - Estrela da Amadora (A) 2-1 L
Estrela pulled off the biggest shock of the season since...well Matchday 1 when they came from 2-0 down to draw with the lions on the opening day. They've gone from nearly going to the wall in the summer to claming 4 points from 2 of Portugals now traditional big four - Os Quatro Grandes. Surely it's time now to give them their place alongside Sporting, Benfica and Porto even if they've never won the title. Or maybe not losing to Estrela. Things started as you'd have expected,
Gabri Martínez scored an absolute peach from 20 yards after just 4 minutes played firing into the bottom right hand corner from his original position wide left. He tried exactly the same thing on 35' but this time didn't get the curl and bend into his shot and watched it go past the far post.
Poor defending on 44' allowed Stoica to steal a march and smash home from 16 yards to make it 1-1. Víctor Gómez seemed to be completely oblivious to the danger. Ten minutes into the second half it was Gómez again who seemed to be sleep walking through the game and not picking Stoica up which meant he was able to head home with time to pick his spot from 8 yards to make it 2-1. Marcus came close to making it 3-1 on 61' but his effort was saved from 10 yards away at the near post. Just a minute later Marcus was clean through a second time and again could only shoot straight at Fontes in the Braga goal from 8 yards. Two minutes past the 90 Souza was somehow able to jinx clear of his marker and fired inbetween two Braga defenders from 18 yards forcing Fontes into a flying save. We'll see if that was just an off night for the Braga defence but in truth they looked surpisingly awful.
xG 0.57 - 0.61
Total Attempts 9 - 9
Shots on target 5 - 4
Big Chances 1 - 1
Big Chances Missed 0 - 1
Matchday 5 - Estoril (H) 1-0 W
The visitors started the game second bottom on 2 points, now 2 points off Rio Ave in 16th who drew 3-3 in the early kick off to stop their run of 2 straight 4-0 losses, one of those of course coming at home to the lions.
Maybe one or two nerves creeping into the home side after their defeat last time out against Estrela. 11' Pau Víctor missed a big chance from 5 yards which hit the left hand post as he met a corner from the far side. He looked more like an Irish dancer than a Spanish forward which was probably the reason he missed in fairness. 22' Despite four defenders in front of him Gabri Martínez was able to get a shot on target away from the D which was plucked out of the air with a comfortable enough stop from Joel Robles to his right. 41' Roko Jurišić did his best Moses impression with the parting of the red...erm shirts, charging past Víctor Gómez with ease in particular before getting a shot away from a ridiculously tight angle that only just whistled past the far post.
49' Nail Omerović whistled a shot past the right hand post from 20 yards and yes I did check to see if his first name was spelt correctly and no apparently it is not a typo. Maybe his dad was a carpenter. 55' Begraoui really should have made it 1-0 when he dispossed a defender in the final third to leave himself one on one with Fontes but the keeper was able to stop the shot from 18 yards with his outstretched left leg.
62' Ferro was shown a second yellow card to reduce the visitors to ten men. He dangled a leg in front Pau Víctor who it's fair to say took advantage of the contact to roll a couple of times for dramatic licence. Braga were finally able to put the wind up Estoril quite literally on 82' with the games only goal from the Danish striker Jonas Wind. He does about a 205 degree turn to face goal on the edge of the six yard box and puts it into the far corner much to the bemusement of Robles. Four minutes past the 90 Martínez brought a good save low to Robles left from 11 yards. Estoril remain second bottom with just 2 goals in 6 games. How things might have been different had Begraoui taken advantage of the defensive error ten minutes into the second half.
xG 1.79 - 0.75
Total attempts 20 - 12
Shots on target 1 -0
Big chances 3 - 1
Big chances missed 2 - 1
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