Portuguese clubs gunning to continue fantastic season as European club football returns | OneFootball

It has been a brilliant start to European club competitions for Portugal’s representatives in the UEFA club competitions.

So much so that the five Primeira Liga clubs together have accumulated more coefficient ranking points that any other nation in 2024/25.

Tom Kundert looks ahead to this week’s fixtures where there is every chance Portugal’s clubs can continue their positive start in the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

UEFA Champions League: Sturm Graz v Sporting (22/10/2024); Benfica v Feyenoord (23/10/2024)

This season’s new format of the Champions League has proven a happy one thus far for Portugal’s two clubs in the competition, Sporting and Benfica. The Eagles are in third place in the 36-team table, and Sporting are lying 12th after the first two rounds of a total of eight matches.

Top 20 team in the Champions League table after two matchdays of the 2024/25 season

Teams finishing in the top 8 positions will qualify automatically for the last-16 round of the Champions League, while clubs finishing 9th-24th will go into a playoff to reach the same stage. At the moment the Lisbon duo are well-placed, looking down from above at European giants such as Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG.

And on paper at least, both Lions and Eagles have a good chance of solidifying their position this week.

Tomorrow Sporting take on Sturm Graz in Austria. The two teams met in the Europa League last season, with Rúben Amorim’s men winning both home and away. The Green and Whites are boosted by Pedro Gonçalves’ return to fitness, but centre-backs Ousmane Diomande and Eduardo Quaresma remain out injured. The Austrians have lost both their Champions League matches thus far by a single goal, but won their last two matches by an aggregate score of 10-2 in the league.

On Wednesday Benfica welcome Feyenoord to the Estádio da Luz for the second time in recent months. The Lisbon giants played the Dutch team in a pre-season venue in the Portuguese capital, running out 5-0 winners. However, much has changed since then, not least in the dugout where Bruno Lage replaced Roger Schmidt as Benfica manager.

The Portuguese coach has enjoyed a perfect start to his second stint as head coach of Benfica, winning 6/6 matches, the most impressive of which undoubtedly was the 4-0 thumping of Atletico Madrid in the last round of Champions League matches. Benfica have no injury worries ahead of the game.

After a poor start to the season, Feyenoord have picked up form recently, winning four and drawing one of their last five matches, including an impressive maiden Champions League win this season, away against Spanish club Girona.

UEFA Europa League: Braga v Bodo/Glimt (23/10/2024); Porto v Hoffenheim (24/10/2024)

While it’s been a near perfect performance by Portuguese teams in the Champions League and Conference League, the same cannot be said about the Europa League. Braga needed a dramatic late comeback to overcome Maccabi Tel Aviv in matchday one, before getting well beaten by Olympiacos in Greece last time out.

Next up for Braga is a home game against Bodo/Glimt. The Norwegian side are unbeaten in their first two games, including a surprise 3-2 victory over FC Porto. Braga coach Carlos Carvalhal still appears to be searching for his best XI. It needed a last-gasp goal by veteran João Moutinho for Braga to overcome lower league outfit 1º Dezembro in the Portuguese Cup on Saturday.

On the plus side, that match saw the return of Rodrigo Salazar, the gifted Uruguayan midfielder making a scoring return after several weeks out. It will be interesting to see if Carvalhal takes the opportunity to team up the Uruguayan and promising youngster Ismaël Gharbi for the first time this season.

While Braga could do with a win, for FC Porto the three points at home against Hoffenheim are absolutely imperative after a draw and a defeat in their first two Europa League matches. With tough away games against Lazio and Anderlecht to come, anything other than victory could seriously compromise the Dragons’ ability to make it past the league phase of the competition.

There is no doubt who Porto’s main attacking weapon is. Young Spanish striker Samu Aghehowa has been scoring for fun ever since signing for the Portuguese club, notching 7 goals in 7 games, and he continued his prolific form in the international break, scoring four first-half goals in Spain’s U21 thrashing of Malta.

Hoffenheim have been inconsistent this season, winning three, drawing three and losing four of their ten matches in all competitions, but the Germans have started the Europa League well, drawing in Denmark against Midtjylland and beating Dynamo Kiev at home.

UEFA Conference League, Djurgarden v Vitória (23/10/2024)

Vitória have been Portugal’s star performers in Europe this season, having won all seven of their UEFA Conference League matches played in the qualifying rounds and the league itself. Rui Borges is rapidly enhancing his reputation as one of Portugal’s most promising up-and-coming coaches. After doing a brilliant job at Moreirense last season, the 43-year-old coach has guided Vitória to 12 wins, two draws and just two defeats in 16 games in 2024/25.

Another win on Thursday in Sweden will leave Vitória well placed to progress to the knockout stages, possibly directly without having to go through a playoff. The Conference League follows the 36-team format as in the other two UEFA competitions, but has fewer games with just six rounds of matches.

However, Vitória will be without in-form Brazilian forward Gustavo Silva, who is out with a groin injury, and would do well not to underestimate their Swedish opponents. Djurgarden came from two goals down to draw 2-2 in Austria against LASK Linz in matchday one.