Porto secure podium after Famalicão draw, when last outside top three? | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli’s FC Porto are leading the 2025/26 Liga Portugal on their own, but there is another statistic that stood out.

The Dragons are the first of the ‘big’ clubs to secure a place on the podium this season, which raised the question: when was the last time that did not happen?

To find the answer, we have to go back to a time when Teófilo Cubillas was shining in blue and white and, at the club, a young striker named Fernando Gomes was beginning to emerge, then 19 years old. We are talking about the 1975/76 season, exactly 50 years ago.

Benfica, Boavista FC, Belenenses and FC Porto. That was the order at the top of the Portuguese First Division at the end of the 30 rounds. And it is worth recalling that the team from the Invicta secured fourth place after a run of favorable results in the final round.

The Dragons went to the Luz and beat their eternal rival 2-3, with a brace from Júlio Carlos, brought on from the bench in the 65th minute, after going into halftime trailing 2-0. Even so, that was not enough to move up to fourth place. The other part of the equation happened at the old Bessa, where José Maria Pedroto’s Boavista beat Sporting 3-1.

Since then, 49 seasons have followed in which FC Porto have always finished in the top three of the top division of Portuguese football. In that period, Sporting finished outside the podium 11 times, while Benfica missed that target on only three occasions.

This figure becomes even more relevant when analyzing the 40 seasons before 1975/76, in which the Dragons finished outside the podium 18 times. The difference between the two periods is enormous.

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