2011–12 Primeira Liga

The 2011–12 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga ZON Sagres for sponsorship reasons) was the 78th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. It began on 14 August 2011 and ended on 13 May 2012.^[2] A total of 16 teams contested the league, 14 of which already took part in the previous season and two of which were promoted from the Liga de Honra. Porto were the defending champions and secured their 26th and second consecutive league title. Óscar Cardozo and Lima, respectively Benfica's and Braga's strikers, were the joint top scorers with 20 goals.

Primeira Liga

Season	2011–12
Dates	12 August 2011 – 13 May 2012
Champions	Porto 26th title
Relegated	União de Leiria Feirense
Champions League	Porto Benfica Braga
Europa League	Académica Sporting CP Marítimo
Matches played	240
Goals scored	634 (2.64 per match)
Best Player	Hulk
Top goalscorer	Óscar Cardozo Lima (20 goals each)
Best goalkeeper	Rui Patrício
Biggest home win	Porto 5−0 Nacional Sporting CP 6−1 Gil Vicente Sporting CP 5−0 Vitória de Guimarães
Biggest away win	Paços de Ferreira 1−5 Vitória de Guimarães União de Leiria 0−4 Benfica União de Leiria 0−4 Feirense
Highest scoring	Olhanense 4−4 Nacional
Longest winning run	Braga 13 games (9 December 2011–26 March 2012)
Longest unbeaten run	Benfica 18 games (12 August 2011–11 February 2012)
Longest winless run	Académica 16 games (18 December 2011–30 April 2012)
Longest losing run	Académica 6 games (18 March 2012–30 April 2012)
Total attendance	2,629,950[1]
Average attendance	10,958[1]
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

Teams

Sixteen teams contested the league, fourteen of which already contested in the 2010–11 season and two of which were promoted from the 2010–11 Liga de Honra. The two teams relegated following the 2010–11 season were Portimonense, which returned to the Liga de Honra just a year after promotion, and Naval, returning to the second tier after a six-year stay. Replacing them in the top flight were Liga de Honra champions Gil Vicente, competing in their 14th Liga season after returning from a five-year absence, and Feirense, who were in the top division for the fourth time and the first since the 1989–90 season.

Stadia and locations

Académica

Beira-Mar

Braga

V. Guimarães

Feirense

Gil Vicente

U. Leiria

Olhanense

P. Ferreira

Porto

Rio Ave

V. Setúbal

Madeira Islands
 (see below)

Benfica

Sporting CP

Location of teams in Liga Zon Sagres 2011–12

Marítimo

Nacional

Location of teams in Liga Zon Sagres 2011–12

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2010–11	Current Spell
Académica	Coimbra	Estádio Cidade de Coimbra	30,210	14th	2002–03
Beira-Mar	Aveiro	Estádio Municipal de Aveiro	30,127	13th	2010–11
Benfica	Lisbon	Estádio da Luz	65,467	Runner-up	1934–35
Braga	Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,152	3rd	1974–75
Feirense	Santa Maria da Feira	Estádio Marcolino de Castro	4,667	Liga de Honra Runner-up	2011–12
Gil Vicente	Barcelos	Estádio Cidade de Barcelos	12,374	Liga de Honra Champion	2011–12
Marítimo	Funchal	Estádio dos Barreiros	8,922	9th	1985–86
Nacional	Funchal	Estádio da Madeira	5,132	6th	2002–03
Olhanense	Olhão	Estádio José Arcanjo	11,622	11th	2009–10
Paços de Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	Estádio da Mata Real	5,255	7th	2005–06
Porto	Porto	Estádio do Dragão	50,399	Champion	1934–35
Rio Ave	Vila do Conde	Estádio dos Arcos	12,815	8th	2008–09
Sporting CP	Lisbon	Estádio José Alvalade	50,080	4th	1934–35
União de Leiria	Leiria	Estádio Municipal da Marinha Grande	8,378	10th	2009–10
Vitória de Guimarães	Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,165	5th	2007–08
Vitória de Setúbal	Setúbal	Estádio do Bonfim	18,692	12th	2004–05

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Académica	Pedro Emanuel	Orlando	Lacatoni	EFAPEL
Beira-Mar	Rui Bento	Hugo Vieira	Joma	Diatosta
Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Luisão	Adidas	TMN (H) / MEO (A)
Braga	Leonardo Jardim	Alan	Macron	AXA
Feirense	Quim Machado	Luciano	Adidas	E.Leclerc / BetClic
Gil Vicente	Paulo Alves	Paulo Arantes	Madsport	GIVEC / Águas de Barcelos / Glassdrive
Marítimo	Pedro Martins	João Guilherme	Lacatoni	Banif
Nacional	Pedro Caixinha	Felipe Lopes	Joma	Banif
Olhanense	Sérgio Conceição	Rui Duarte	Lacatoni	Ria Shopping
Paços de Ferreira	Henrique Calisto	Filipe Anunciação	Lacatoni	Capital do Móvel
Porto	Vítor Pereira	Helton	Nike	MEO (H) / TMN (A)
Rio Ave	Carlos Brito	José Gaspar	Lacatoni	Nassica
Sporting CP	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Daniel Carriço	Puma	TMN (H) / MEO (A)
União de Leiria	José Dominguez	Marco Soares	Joma	Kia
Vitória de Guimarães	Rui Vitória	João Alves	Lacatoni	Finibanco
Vitória de Setúbal	Bruno Ribeiro	Ricardo Silva	Lacatoni	Kia

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Porto	André Villas-Boas	Resigned/Signed by Chelsea	21 June 2011[3]	Vítor Pereira	22 June 2011[4]	Pre-season
Vitória de Guimarães	Manuel Machado	Resigned	26 August 2011[5]	Rui Vitória	30 August 2011[6]	16th
Paços de Ferreira	Rui Vitória	Signed by Vitória de Guimarães	30 August 2011[6]	Luís Miguel	30 August 2011[7]	9th
União de Leiria	Pedro Caixinha	Sacked	6 September 2011[8]	Vítor Pontes	8 September 2011[9]	16th
União de Leiria	Vítor Pontes	Resigned	26 September 2011[10]	Manuel Cajuda	26 September 2011[10]	16th
Nacional	Ivo Vieira	Resigned	31 October 2011[11]	Pedro Caixinha	31 October 2011[12]	12th
Paços de Ferreira	Luís Miguel	Sacked	27 November 2011[13]	Henrique Calisto	30 November 2011[14]	16th
Olhanense	Daúto Faquirá	Resigned	30 December 2011[15]	Sérgio Conceição	1 January 2012[16]	10th
Sporting CP	Domingos Paciência	Sacked	13 February 2012[17]	Ricardo Sá Pinto	13 February 2012[17]	4th
Beira-Mar	Rui Bento	Resigned	26 February 2012[18]	Ulisses Morais	27 February 2012[19]	13th
Feirense	Quim Machado	Sacked	2 April 2012[20]	Henrique Nunes	2 April 2012[20]	16th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Porto (C)	30	23	6	1	69	19	+50	75	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Benfica	30	21	6	3	66	27	+39	69
3	Braga	30	19	5	6	59	29	+30	62	Qualification to Champions League play-off round
4	Sporting CP	30	18	5	7	47	26	+21	59	Qualification to Europa League play-off round
5	Marítimo	30	14	8	8	41	38	+3	50	Qualification to Europa League third qualifying round
6	Vitória de Guimarães	30	14	3	13	40	40	0	45
7	Nacional	30	13	5	12	48	50	−2	44
8	Olhanense	30	9	12	9	36	38	−2	39
9	Gil Vicente	30	8	10	12	31	42	−11	34
10	Paços de Ferreira	30	8	7	15	35	53	−18	31
11	Vitória de Setúbal	30	8	6	16	24	49	−25	30
12	Beira-Mar	30	8	5	17	26	38	−12	29[a]
13	Académica	30	7	8	15	27	38	−11	29[a]	Qualification to Europa League group stage[b]
14	Rio Ave	30	7	7	16	33	42	−9	28
15	Feirense (R)	30	5	9	16	27	49	−22	24	Relegation to Segunda Liga
16	União de Leiria (R)	30	5	4	21	25	56	−31	19

Source: LPFP (in Portuguese)
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Matches won; 7) Goals scored; 8) Play-off.
(Note: LPFP decided that only criteria 1, 5, 6 and 7 would be applied to establish the classification during the competition.)^[21]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Beira-Mar ahead of Académica on head-to-head record; Académica–Beira-Mar 0–1, Beira-Mar–Académica 2–1
2. Académica qualified for the group stage of 2012–13 UEFA Europa League after winning the 2011–12 Taça de Portugal.

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Porto	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1
Benfica	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2
Braga	8	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	1	3	3	3	3	3	3
Sporting CP	6	9	12	7	6	6	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	4
Marítimo	8	14	10	5	4	4	5	5	5	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5
Vitória de Guimarães	16	6	11	13	12	12	14	16	13	10	8	9	9	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Nacional	8	15	15	16	14	14	12	13	10	12	12	15	14	10	11	8	10	10	8	7	8	8	9	8	7	7	7	7	7	7
Olhanense	6	8	6	8	8	7	8	6	7	6	6	7	10	11	8	9	7	8	7	8	7	7	7	7	8	9	8	8	8	8
Gil Vicente	4	12	7	11	11	8	9	9	8	8	7	8	8	9	10	11	9	7	9	9	9	11	8	9	10	11	11	9	9	9
Paços de Ferreira	14	7	9	10	13	13	15	11	14	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	14	12	12	12	12	12	11	10	11	10	10	12	10	10
Vitória de Setúbal	1	5	8	12	7	9	7	8	9	9	11	12	12	14	14	15	16	15	16	14	13	14	13	12	9	8	9	10	11	11
Beira-Mar	8	10	5	6	10	10	10	10	12	11	9	10	7	8	9	10	11	13	13	13	14	13	14	14	14	12	13	11	12	12
Académica	2	2	4	4	5	5	6	7	6	7	10	6	6	6	7	7	8	9	10	10	10	10	12	13	13	14	14	15	14	13
Rio Ave	8	11	14	15	16	16	16	15	16	14	15	13	15	12	13	13	12	11	11	11	11	9	10	11	12	13	12	13	13	14
Feirense	8	13	13	9	9	11	11	12	15	15	13	14	11	13	12	12	13	14	14	15	15	15	16	16	16	16	15	14	15	15
União de Leiria	14	16	16	14	15	15	13	14	11	13	14	11	13	15	15	14	15	16	15	16	16	16	15	15	15	15	16	16	16	16

	Leader
	2012–13 UEFA Champions League Group stage
	2012–13 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
	2012–13 UEFA Europa League Play-off round
	2012–13 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
	Relegation to 2012–13 Liga de Honra

Source: AllTimeSoccer.com

Results

Home \ Away	ACA	BEM	BEN	BRA	FEI	GVI	MAR	NAC	OLH	PAÇ	POR	RAV	SCP	ULE	VGU	VSE
Académica		0–1	0–0	0–0	4–0	0–2	0–1	4–0	0–1	0–1	0–3	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–2	1–0
Beira-Mar	2–1		0–1	1–2	2–1	1–0	1–2	0–3	1–2	2–0	1–2	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–3
Benfica	4–1	3–1		2–1	3–1	3–1	4–1	4–1	2–1	4–1	2–3	5–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	4–1
Braga	2–1	1–0	1–1		3–0	3–1	2–0	2–0	1–2	5–2	0–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	4–0	3–0
Feirense	1–1	1–3	1–2	1–4		0–0	2–2	0–0	1–1	0–0	0–0	2–0	0–2	2–1	1–3	1–0
Gil Vicente	2–0	0–0	2–2	0–3	3–1		0–0	0–3	1–1	1–2	3–1	0–0	2–0	2–1	3–1	0–1
Marítimo	3–2	0–0	0–1	1–2	2–1	3–2		2–4	2–1	1–1	0–2	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–0
Nacional	4–1	2–1	0–2	1–3	2–0	3–1	2–2		1–0	1–0	0–2	2–1	2–3	2–2	1–4	1–1
Olhanense	0–2	2–1	0–0	3–4	1–2	0–0	0–0	4–4		1–2	0–0	0–2	0–0	2–1	1–0	2–2
Paços de Ferreira	2–0	0–3	1–2	1–1	3–1	1–2	1–1	0–2	1–1		1–1	2–2	2–3	2–1	1–5	2–1
Porto	1–1	3–0	2–2	3–2	2–0	3–1	2–0	5–0	2–0	3–0		2–0	2–0	4–0	3–1	3–0
Rio Ave	0–0	4–0	2–2	0–0	2–2	2–0	1–3	2–1	0–1	1–0	2–5		2–3	2–0	0–1	3–0
Sporting CP	2–1	2–0	1–0	3–2	1–0	6–1	2–3	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–0		3–1	5–0	3–0
União de Leiria	1–2	0–0	0–4	1–0	0–4	0–0	1–3	2–3	1–3	2–4	2–5	1–0	0–1		1–0	2–0
Vitória de Guimarães	1–2	0–3	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	3–1	0–1	2–1	0–1	3–2		3–0
Vitória de Setúbal	1–1	1–0	1–3	0–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–3	2–3	2–1	1–3	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0

Source: LPFP (in Portuguese)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[22]
1	Óscar Cardozo	Benfica	20
	Lima	Braga	20
3	Hulk	Porto	16
4	Ricky van Wolfswinkel	Sporting CP	14
5	James Rodríguez	Porto	13
6	João Tomás	Rio Ave	11
	Edgar	Vitória de Guimarães	11
	Nolito	Benfica	11
9	Baba Diawara1	Marítimo	10
	Claudemir	Nacional	10
	Bruno César	Benfica	10
	Lorenzo Melgarejo	Paços de Ferreira	10
	Mario Rondón	Nacional	10

• Last updated: 13 May 2012, 00:25 UTC

Assists table

Rank	Player	Club	Assists[23]
1	Hulk	Porto	10
2	Pablo Aimar	Benfica	9
	Danilo Dias	Marítimo	9
4	James Rodríguez	Porto	8
5	Nicolás Gaitán	Benfica	7
	Nolito	Benfica	7
	Alan	Braga	7
	Wilson Eduardo	Olhanense	7
	Lima	Braga	7

• Last updated: 7 May 2012, 12:48 UTC

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Primeira Liga hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Edgar	Vitória de Guimarães	Paços de Ferreira	5–1	4 November 2011
Lima	Braga	Gil Vicente	3–0	18 February 2012
Kléber	Porto	Rio Ave	5-2	12 May 2012
Ricky van Wolfswinkel	Sporting CP	Braga	3-2	12 May 2012

Awards

Monthly awards

SJPF Player of the Month Month Player Club September[24] Ricky van Wolfswinkel Sporting CP October[25] Diego Capel Sporting CP November[26] Toscano Vitória de Guimarães December[27] Bédi Buval Feirense January[28] Óscar Cardozo Benfica February[29] Lima Braga March[30] Mossoró Braga April[31] Hulk Porto

SJPF Young Player of the Month Month Player Club September[32] Wilson Eduardo Olhanense October[33] Vítor Gomes Rio Ave November[34] André Pinto Olhanense December[35] Adrien Silva Académica January[36] Daniel Candeias Nacional February[29] Daniel Candeias Nacional March[37] Salvador Agra Olhanense April[31] Daniel Candeias Nacional

Annual awards

Portuguese Golden Ball

The Portuguese Golden Ball was given to James Rodríguez, the youngest player (21) to ever receive the award.^[38]

LPFP Primeira Liga Player of the Year

The LPFP Primeira Liga Player of the Year was awarded to Hulk. He became the first player to win the award twice.^[39]

LPFP Primeira Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year

The LPFP Primeira Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year was awarded to James Rodríguez.^[39]

LPFP Primeira Liga Goalkeeper of the Year

The LPFP Primeira Liga Goalkeeper of the Year was awarded to Rui Patrício.^[39]

LPFP Primeira Liga Manager of the Year

The LPFP Primeira Liga Coach of the Year was awarded to Vítor Pereira.^[39]

LPFP Primeira Liga Fairplay Award

The LPFP Primeira Liga Fairplay Award was awarded to Rio Ave.^[39]

Transfers

Main articles: List of Portuguese football transfers summer 2011 and List of Portuguese football transfers winter 2012

Notes

• ^1 Baba moved to Sevilla during the winter transfer window.