Only four times have FC Porto played Benfica and Sporting away back-to-back | OneFootball

After being defeated 1-0 at Alvalade in the first leg of the semifinals of the Portuguese Cup, FC Porto returns to Lisbon to face the other rival of the Segunda Circular: Benfica. The match between the Eagles and the Dragons is scheduled for 6:00 PM next Sunday, March 8, at the Estádio da Luz.

This is an apparently unusual scenario: the blue and white team will play consecutively at the home grounds of the Lions and the Reds. The portal zerozero took this circumstance as a starting point for an investigation: has this happened regularly throughout history, or is it a rarity?

Using our extensive and detailed database, we went through FC Porto’s history to find out how many seasons have recorded this sequence of visits. Any guesses, dear reader?

Since records began, FC Porto has faced Benfica and Sporting, in two consecutive away games, on only four(!) occasions. A rare phenomenon, considering the competitions in which these three clubs meet.

If we restrict the search to the same pattern expected for 2025/26 – first visiting Sporting’s ground and then traveling to Luz in the following round – this has happened only once in history, and it wasn’t favorable to Porto either…

Stars aligned? The result against Sporting was the same…

Although there are few examples, you only have to go back to 2017/18 to find consecutive matchdays in Lisbon. That season, the team managed by Sérgio Conceição beat Benfica at Luz – with Herrera’s famous goal – and, in the following match, lost at Alvalade in the semifinals of the Portuguese Cup.

Going even further back, to the 1980s, we find the only case where the Dragons played first at the Lions’ home and then at the Reds’. In the 1981/82 season, this sequence repeats the current pattern: a 1-0 defeat at Alvalade and another defeat, 3-1, at Luz.

Season Game 1 Game 2 2017/18 Benfica 0-1 FC Porto Sporting 1-0 (5-4 pen.) FC Porto 1981/82 Sporting 1-0 FC Porto Benfica 3-1 FC Porto 1938/39 Benfica 4-1 FC Porto Sporting 4-4 FC Porto 1932/33 Benfica 4-2 FC Porto Sporting 1-1 FC Porto

At Luz that season in the 80s, Porto once again left defeated, this time by 3-1. Now, Farioli’s team will try to reverse this sequence to prevent this historical curiosity from becoming a bad omen.

Before that, the phenomenon had already occurred twice in the 1930s. In 1938/39, Porto was defeated 4-1 at Luz and drew at Alvalade; six years earlier, in 1932/33, they lost 4-2 to Benfica and drew with Sporting. In total, FC Porto has only one win in eight matches – a statistic that may worry the Italian coach.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.