2014–15 Primeira Liga

The 2014–15 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons) was the 81st season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. It began on 15 August 2014 and concluded on 23 May 2015.^[5]

Primeira Liga

Season	2014–15
Dates	15 August 2014 – 23 May 2015
Champions	Benfica 34th title
Relegated	Gil Vicente Penafiel
Champions League	Benfica Porto Sporting CP
Europa League	Braga Vitória de Guimarães Belenenses
Matches played	306
Goals scored	763 (2.49 per match)
Best Player	Jonas[1]
Top goalscorer	Jackson Martínez (21 goals)[2]
Best goalkeeper	Júlio César[1]
Biggest home win	Benfica 6–0 Estoril (28 February 2015)
Biggest away win	V. Setúbal 0–5 Benfica (12 September 2014) Arouca 0–5 Porto (25 October 2014) Penafiel 1–6 Braga (29 November 2014) Gil Vicente 0–5 Benfica (2 May 2015)
Highest scoring	Penafiel 1–6 Braga (29 November 2014)
Longest winning run	9 games Benfica
Longest unbeaten run	16 games Porto
Longest winless run	15 games Gil Vicente Académica
Longest losing run	5 games Penafiel Estoril
Highest attendance	63,534[3] Benfica 0–0 Porto (26 April 2015)
Lowest attendance	430[3] Arouca 1–3 Paços de Ferreira (26 April 2015)
Total attendance	3,091,276[4]
Average attendance	10,102[4]
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

On 17 May 2015, Benfica won their second consecutive and 34th overall title.

Events

The league was scaled up to 18 teams, after the Court's rule to nullify Boavista's relegation from the Primeira Liga in the 2007–08 season. Boavista has been invited back in the Primeira Liga, after the club won a legal battle that eventually deemed their forced relegation five years ago unlawful. The club therefore went straight from the third level to the top league.^[6][7]

The league was named Liga ZON Sagres until 2013–14 after the sponsorship agreement between Sagres, ZON (now NOS) and the league ended. The league is named Liga NOS since 5 February 2015.

Teams

Stadia and locations

Benfica
Sporting
Belenenses

Académica

Arouca

Estoril

Gil Vicente

Penafiel

P. Ferreira

Porto
Boavista

Rio Ave

Braga

V. Guimarães

Moreirense

V. Setúbal

Location of teams in Liga NOS 2014–15 (Mainland)

Marítimo

Nacional

Location of teams in Liga NOS 2014–15 (Madeira)

Team	Home City	Stadium	Capacity	2013–14 finish
Académica	Coimbra	Estádio Cidade de Coimbra	30,210	8th
Arouca	Arouca	Estádio Municipal de Arouca	5,000	12th
Belenenses	Lisbon	Estádio do Restelo	19,300	14th
Benfica	Lisbon	Estádio da Luz	65,642	1st
Boavista	Porto	Estádio do Bessa	28,263	4th in the North Zone in C.N.
Braga	Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,154	9th
Estoril	Estoril	Estádio António Coimbra da Mota	8,000	4th
Gil Vicente	Barcelos	Estádio Cidade de Barcelos	12,504	13th
Marítimo	Funchal	Estádio dos Barreiros	7,000	6th
Moreirense	Moreira de Cónegos	Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas	6,100	1st in Segunda Liga
Nacional	Funchal	Estádio da Madeira	5,142	5th
Paços de Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	Estádio Capital do Móvel	5,250	15th and Play-off Winner
Penafiel	Penafiel	Estádio Municipal 25 de Abril	7,000	3rd in Segunda Liga
Porto	Porto	Estádio do Dragão	52,002	3rd
Rio Ave	Vila do Conde	Estádio dos Arcos	12,820	11th
Sporting CP	Lisbon	Estádio José Alvalade	52,466	2nd
Vitória de Guimarães	Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,146	10th
Vitória de Setúbal	Setúbal	Estádio do Bonfim	18,692	7th

Personnel and sponsors

Team	Head manager	Manufacturer	Sponsors
Académica	José Viterbo	Nike	EFAPEL
Arouca	Pedro Emanuel	Macron	Banco BIC
Belenenses	Jorge Simão	Lacatoni	—
Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Adidas	MEO (home) Moche (away)
Boavista	Petit	Erreà	Mestre da Cor
Braga	Sérgio Conceição	Macron	Banco BIC
Estoril	Hugo Leal Fabiano	Hummel	Banco BIC
Gil Vicente	José Mota	Macron	Barcelos
Marítimo	Ivo Vieira	Lacatoni	BANIF
Moreirense	Miguel Leal	cdt	—
Nacional	Manuel Machado	Hummel	BANIF
Paços de Ferreira	Paulo Fonseca	Lacatoni	Banco BIC
Penafiel	Carlos Brito	Desportreino	Banco BIC
Porto	Julen Lopetegui	Warrior	MEO (home) Moche (away)
Rio Ave	Pedro Martins	Lacatoni	—
Sporting CP	Marco Silva	Macron	MEO (home) Moche (away)
Vitória de Guimarães	Rui Vitória	Nike	Banco BIC
Vitória de Setúbal	Bruno Ribeiro	Hummel	KIA

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Marítimo	Pedro Martins	Resigned	11 May 2014[8][9]	Pre-season	Leonel Pontes	8 May 2014[10]
Porto	Luís Castro	Contract expired	11 May 2014[11]		Julen Lopetegui	6 May 2014[12]
Braga	Jorge Paixão	Contract expired	11 May 2014[13]		Sérgio Conceição	26 May 2014[14]
Estoril	Marco Silva	Resigned	12 May 2014[15]		José Couceiro	24 May 2014[16]
Vitória de Setúbal	José Couceiro	Mutual agreement	15 May 2014[17]		Domingos Paciência	22 May 2014[18]
Moreirense	Toni Conceição	Mutual agreement	15 May 2014[19]		Miguel Leal	16 May 2014[20]
Penafiel	Miguel Leal	Signed by Moreirense	16 May 2014[20]		Ricardo Chéu	16 May 2014[21]
Rio Ave	Nuno Espírito Santo	Resigned	19 May 2014[22]		Pedro Martins	22 May 2014[23]
Sporting CP	Leonardo Jardim	Signed by Monaco	21 May 2014[24]		Marco Silva	21 May 2014[25]
Académica	Sérgio Conceição	Signed by Braga	26 May 2014[14]		Paulo Sérgio	31 May 2014[26]
Gil Vicente	João de Deus	Mutual agreement	31 August 2014[27]	17th	José Mota	2 September 2014
Penafiel	Ricardo Chéu	Mutual agreement	16 September 2014	18th	Rui Quinta	16 September 2014
Vitória de Setúbal	Domingos Paciência	Mutual agreement	19 January 2015[28]	15th	Bruno Ribeiro	20 January 2015[29]
Académica	Paulo Sérgio	Resigned	17 February 2015	17th	José Viterbo	18 February 2015
Estoril	José Couceiro	Resigned	3 March 2015	12th	Hugo Leal Fabiano	3 March 2015
Marítimo	Leonel Pontes	Resigned	3 March 2015	11th	Ivo Vieira	4 March 2015
Penafiel	Rui Quinta	Mutual agreement	16 March 2015[30]	18th	Carlos Brito	19 March 2015
Belenenses	Lito Vidigal	Resigned	17 March 2015	7th	Jorge Simão	20 March 2015

Season summary

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Benfica (C)	34	27	4	3	86	16	+70	85	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Porto	34	25	7	2	74	13	+61	82
3	Sporting CP	34	22	10	2	67	29	+38	76	Qualification for the Champions League play-off round
4	Braga	34	17	7	10	55	28	+27	58	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
5	Vitória de Guimarães	34	15	10	9	50	35	+15	55	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
6	Belenenses	34	12	12	10	34	35	−1	48
7	Nacional	34	13	8	13	45	46	−1	47
8	Paços de Ferreira	34	12	11	11	40	45	−5	47
9	Marítimo	34	12	8	14	46	45	+1	44
10	Rio Ave	34	10	13	11	38	42	−4	43
11	Moreirense	34	11	10	13	33	42	−9	43
12	Estoril	34	9	13	12	38	56	−18	40
13	Boavista	34	9	7	18	27	50	−23	34
14	Vitória de Setúbal	34	7	8	19	24	56	−32	29
15	Académica	34	4	17	13	26	46	−20	29
16	Arouca	34	7	7	20	26	50	−24	28
17	Gil Vicente (R)	34	4	11	19	25	60	−35	23	Relegation to LigaPro
18	Penafiel (R)	34	5	7	22	29	69	−40	22

Source: LPFP
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) points in matches between tied teams; 3) goal difference in matches between tied teams; 4) away goals in matches between tied teams; 5) goal difference; 6) wins; 7) goals scored. The LPFP decided that only criteria 1, 5, 6 and 7 would be applied to establish the classification during the competition.^[31] Qualification for the 2015–16 Europa League has changed:^[32] the best-placed non-qualified domestic championship club will enter the UEFA Europa League from the 2015–16 season, rather than the domestic cup runners-up, should the domestic cup winners also qualify for the UEFA Champions League via the final championship standings.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since Sporting CP won the 2014–15 Taça de Portugal, the spot awarded to the cup winner (Europa League group stage) was passed to the fourth-placed team and the spot originally meant for the fourth-placed team (Europa League third qualifying round) was given to the sixth-placed team.

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	31	32	33	34
Benfica	4	4	5	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Porto	5	5	3	4	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Sporting CP	11	7	8	8	6	7	4	4	6	8	6	4	5	5	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Braga	1	6	4	6	8	4	7	6	7	5	4	5	4	3	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Vitória de Guimarães	3	2	2	2	2	5	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	4	3	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Belenenses	2	3	6	7	5	8	9	8	5	4	5	6	7	7	7	8	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	6
Nacional	12	14	11	14	13	16	16	11	13	15	14	12	13	13	14	13	12	12	12	9	9	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	8	9	10	9	7
Paços de Ferreira	16	15	12	11	10	9	8	7	4	6	7	7	6	6	8	7	9	7	8	7	8	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	8
Marítimo	15	10	7	5	7	3	5	9	10	10	9	10	10	11	10	10	11	11	10	11	10	10	11	10	11	11	10	10	10	10	10	9	8	9
Rio Ave	6	1	1	1	4	6	6	5	8	7	8	8	8	8	6	6	7	9	6	8	7	8	9	9	8	7	8	8	8	9	8	8	10	10
Moreirense	7	8	10	9	12	14	12	10	9	9	10	9	9	9	9	9	8	10	11	12	11	11	10	11	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11
Estoril	10	13	15	12	11	15	15	16	11	12	11	11	11	10	11	11	10	8	9	10	12	12	12	12	12	12	13	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
Boavista	18	17	18	15	15	12	14	14	16	13	13	14	12	12	12	12	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	14	13	12	13	13	13	13	13	13	13
Vitória de Setúbal	17	9	9	13	14	11	10	12	14	11	12	13	14	16	13	15	15	14	14	14	14	15	16	16	15	15	15	15	16	16	16	16	15	14
Académica	8	11	13	16	16	13	11	13	12	14	16	16	16	17	16	16	16	16	16	16	17	16	15	14	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	15
Arouca	9	12	14	10	9	10	13	15	15	16	15	15	17	14	15	14	14	15	15	15	16	14	14	15	16	16	16	16	15	15	15	15	16	16
Gil Vicente	13	16	16	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	17	15	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17
Penafiel	14	18	17	18	17	17	17	17	17	17	18	17	15	15	17	17	17	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18

	Leader
	2015–16 UEFA Champions League Group stage
	2015–16 UEFA Champions League Play-off round
	2015–16 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
	Relegation to 2015–16 Segunda Liga

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Results

Home \ Away	ACA	ARO	BEL	BEN	BOA	BRA	EST	GVI	MAR	MOR	NAC	PAÇ	PEN	POR	RAV	SCP	VGU	VSE
Académica		1–1	1–1	0–2	0–0	1–1	2–2	1–2	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–2	1–1	0–3	0–0	1–1	2–4	1–1
Arouca	0–1		0–1	1–3	0–0	1–0	1–1	3–1	1–0	1–2	3–3	1–3	0–1	0–5	1–0	1–3	1–2	1–0
Belenenses	0–0	0–0		0–2	3–1	0–1	2–2	2–0	1–0	2–0	3–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–3	1–1	0–3	1–1
Benfica	5–1	4–0	3–0		3–0	2–0	6–0	1–0	4–1	3–1	3–1	2–0	4–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	3–0	3–0
Boavista	1–0	3–1	1–0	0–1		1–0	1–2	3–2	0–2	3–1	0–1	1–2	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–3	3–1	0–0
Braga	0–0	2–0	1–1	2–1	3–0		2–1	2–0	1–3	1–0	3–1	3–0	4–0	0–1	3–0	0–1	0–0	5–0
Estoril	1–2	1–0	1–2	2–3	2–0	0–2		1–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	3–3	2–2	1–5	1–1	1–0	1–0
Gil Vicente	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–5	1–1	0–2	1–1		1–2	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–5	0–0	0–4	1–3	1–1
Marítimo	2–1	1–1	1–2	0–4	4–0	2–1	0–0	1–2		1–2	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	4–0	0–1	4–0	1–1
Moreirense	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–3	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–0	1–1		2–3	2–0	0–0	0–2	1–1	1–4	2–1	3–1
Nacional	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–0	3–2	3–0	0–1		3–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	0–1	2–2	3–0
Paços de Ferreira	3–2	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–2	0–0	2–3		2–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	2–2	4–1
Penafiel	0–0	0–2	1–3	0–3	2–2	1–6	1–2	2–1	3–4	1–2	2–1	0–1		1–3	0–2	0–4	1–1	2–0
Porto	1–0	1–0	3–0	0–2	0–0	2–1	5–0	2–0	2–0	3–0	2–0	5–0	2–0		5–0	3–0	1–0	4–0
Rio Ave	3–0	1–2	0–0	2–1	4–0	0–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–0	3–2	1–3		0–1	1–1	2–0
Sporting CP	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	4–1	3–0	2–0	4–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	3–2	1–1	4–2		4–1	3–0
Vitória de Guimarães	4–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–2	1–0	2–1	4–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	0–0	3–0		0–1
Vitória de Setúbal	0–0	2–1	1–1	0–5	0–1	1–3	1–2	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	0–2	4–1	1–2	0–1

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

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of match played 23 May 2015^[2]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jackson Martínez	Porto	21
2	Jonas	Benfica	20
3	Lima	Benfica	19
4	Marco Matias	Nacional	17
5	Islam Slimani	Sporting CP	12
	Ahmed Hassan	Rio Ave
7	Fredy Montero	Sporting CP	11
	André André	Vitória de Guimarães
9	Eder	Braga	10
	Bruno Moreira	Paços de Ferreira

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Primeira Liga hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Ahmed Hassan	Rio Ave	Estoril	1–5	24 August 2014
Talisca	Benfica	Vitória de Setúbal	0–5	12 September 2014
André André	Vitória de Guimarães	Nacional	4–0	4 January 2015
Mario Rondón	Nacional	Arouca	3–3	8 February 2015
Cristian Tello	Porto	Sporting CP	3–0	1 March 2015

Awards

SJPF Player of the Month Month Player Club August/September Talisca Benfica October/November Nani Sporting CP December Jackson Martínez Porto January Jackson Martínez Porto February Jonas Benfica March Cristian Tello Porto April[33] Jonas Benfica

SJPF Young Player of the Month Month Player Club August/September[34] Sérgio Oliveira Paços de Ferreira October/November[35] Hernâni Porto December[36] Rafa Silva Braga January[37] João Mário Sporting CP February[38] Tobias Figueiredo Sporting CP March[39] Filipe Ferreira Belenenses April[40] Afonso Figueiredo Boavista