2018–19 Primeira Liga

The 2018–19 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons) was the 85th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. Porto were the defending champions but finished behind Benfica, who became champions for a record 37th time while equalling their own scoring record of 103 goals in the 1963–64 season.

Primeira Liga

Season	2018–19
Dates	10 August 2018 – 19 May 2019
Champions	Benfica 37th title
Relegated	Chaves Nacional Feirense
Champions League	Benfica Porto
Europa League	Sporting CP Braga Vitória de Guimarães
Matches played	306
Goals scored	826 (2.7 per match)
Top goalscorer	Haris Seferovic (23 goals)
Biggest home win	Benfica 10–0 Nacional (10 February 2019)
Biggest away win	Belenenses SAD 1–8 Sporting CP (5 May 2019)
Highest scoring	Benfica 10–0 Nacional (10 February 2019)
Longest winning run	9 matches Benfica Porto Sporting CP
Longest unbeaten run	19 matches Benfica
Longest winless run	31 matches (league record)[1] Feirense
Longest losing run	8 matches Chaves
Highest attendance	64,064[2] Benfica 4–1 Santa Clara (18 May 2019)
Lowest attendance	298 Belenenses SAD 0–1 Moreirense (4 February 2019)[3]
Total attendance	3,577,720[4]
Average attendance	11,692
← 2017–18 2019–20 →

Incidents

The weeks leading up to the beginning of the competition were filled with several incidents:

• Contrary to previous seasons, three teams will be relegated. This is due to the fact that Gil Vicente was granted a place in the 2019–20 Primeira Liga season by court decision. Gil Vicente argued against this solution since the club claimed for an immediate integration in the first tier (possibly with an enlargement to 20 participating teams).^[5]

• Académico de Viseu, which had finished third in 2017–18 LigaPro, claimed that runners-up Santa Clara should be punished for irregularities occurred in several games of the season. This would prevent Santa Clara to be promoted to the 2018–2019 Primeira Liga, hence Académico de Viseu would take its place.^[6]

• Following the incidents in Sporting CP's training centre, during which players and staff were attacked by the club's ultras, nine players unilaterally revoked their contracts.^[7] Ultimately, after the president's impeachment (as he was accused of being responsible for those occurrences), the club was able to convince some of those players to return.^[8] Nevertheless, the new administration always admitted that the club would start the season in an early preparation phase.^[9]

• On 30 June, following disputes over the administration of the football section, Belenenses broke the relationship with the publicly traded company who owned the football section (in Portuguese, SAD - as for sociedade anónima desportiva). Nevertheless, Codecity Sports Management, the owners of Belenenses's football Inc., decided to keep business and placed an entering in Primeira Liga under the name "Belenenses SAD", using Estádio Nacional as home stadium.^[10] In October, the intellectual property court issued an obligation for the team owned by Codecity Sports Management to rebrand, dismissing every trademark connection with Clube de Futebol "Os Belenenses" but the society did not follow and appealed the decision.^[11] The original club made a fresh start, entering a team in the bottom division of Lisbon FA (6th tier), keeping the support of a vast majority of the fans.^[12]

Teams

Stadia and locations

Belenenses SAD

Benfica

Sporting CP

Boavista

Porto

Braga

Desp. Aves

Chaves

Feirense

Moreirense

Portimonense

Rio Ave

Tondela

V. Guimarães

V. Setúbal

Location of teams in 2018–19 Primeira Liga (Mainland)

Marítimo

Nacional

Location of teams in 2018–19 Primeira Liga (Madeira)

Santa Clara

Location of teams in 2018–19 Primeira Liga (Azores)

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity	2017–18 finish
Belenenses SAD	Oeiras	Estádio Nacional	37,500	12th
Benfica	Lisbon	Estádio da Luz	65,200	2nd
Boavista	Porto	Estádio do Bessa	28,263	8th
Braga	Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,000	4th
Chaves	Chaves	Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira	8,400	6th
Desportivo das Aves	Aves	Estádio do CD Aves	6,230	13th
Feirense	Santa Maria da Feira	Estádio Marcolino de Castro	5,600	16th
Marítimo	Funchal	Estádio do Marítimo	10,600	7th
Moreirense	Moreira de Cónegos	Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas	6,150	15th
Nacional	Funchal	Estádio da Madeira	5,200	1st (LP)
Portimonense	Portimão	Estádio Municipal de Portimão	5,870	10th
Porto	Porto	Estádio do Dragão	50,033	1st
Rio Ave	Vila do Conde	Estádio dos Arcos	9,065	5th
Santa Clara	Ponta Delgada	Estádio de São Miguel	10,000	2nd (LP)
Sporting CP	Lisbon	Estádio José Alvalade	50,095	3rd
Tondela	Tondela	Estádio João Cardoso	5,000	11th
Vitória de Guimarães	Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,000	9th
Vitória de Setúbal	Setúbal	Estádio do Bonfim	15,497	14th

Personnel and sponsors

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Sponsors
Belenenses SAD	Silas	Gonçalo Silva	Lacatoni	Kia Motors
Benfica	Bruno Lage	Jardel	Adidas	Emirates
Boavista	Jorge Simão	Idris	Lacatoni	Mestre da Cor
Braga	Vacant	Marcelo Goiano	Lacatoni	Forum Braga
Chaves	Daniel Ramos	Nuno André Coelho	Lacatoni	Museu do Pão
Desportivo das Aves	José Mota	Nélson Lenho	Lacatoni	Meo
Feirense	Nuno Manta Santos	Cris	Legea	Castro Electrónica
Marítimo	Petit	Edgar Costa	Nike	Santander Totta
Moreirense	Ivo Vieira	Arsénio	CDT	—
Nacional	Costinha	Jota	Hummel	Santander Totta
Portimonense	António Folha	Ricardo Ferreira	Mizuno	McDonald's
Porto	Sérgio Conceição	Héctor Herrera	New Balance	Meo
Rio Ave	Daniel Ramos	Tarantini	Nike	Meo
Santa Clara	João Henriques	Pedro Pacheco	Nike	Santander Totta
Sporting CP	Marcel Keizer	Bruno Fernandes	Macron	NOS
Tondela	Pepa	Ricardo Costa	CDT	Laboratórios BASI
Vitória de Guimarães	Luís Castro	André André	Macron	Castro Electrónica
Vitória de Setúbal	Lito Vidigal	Vasco Fernandes	Hummel	Kia Motors

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Vitória de Setúbal	José Couceiro	End of contract	13 May 2018[13]	Pre-season	Lito Vidigal	22 May 2018[14]
Santa Clara	Carlos Pinto		14 May 2018[15]		João Henriques	31 May 2018[16]
Vitória de Guimarães	José Peseiro	Mutual consent	15 May 2018[17]		Luís Castro	21 May 2018[18]
Moreirense	Petit		20 May 2018[19]		Ivo Vieira	29 May 2018[20]
Chaves	Luís Castro		21 May 2018[21]		Daniel Ramos	8 June 2018[22]
Portimonense	Vítor Oliveira		5 June 2018[23]		António Folha	2 July 2018[24]
Sporting CP	Jorge Jesus		6 June 2018[25]		Siniša Mihajlović	18 June 2018[26]
Marítimo	Daniel Ramos		7 June 2018[27]		Cláudio Braga	12 June 2018[28]
Rio Ave	Miguel Cardoso	Resigned	13 June 2018[29]		José Gomes	13 June 2018[30]
Sporting CP	Siniša Mihajlović	Sacked	28 June 2018[31]		José Peseiro	1 July 2018[32]
	José Peseiro		1 November 2018[33]	5th	Marcel Keizer	9 November 2018
Marítimo	Cláudio Braga	Resigned	26 November 2018[34]	13th	Petit	27 November 2018[34]
Rio Ave	José Gomes	Signed by Reading	22 December 2018[35]	9th	Daniel Ramos	2 January 2019
Benfica	Rui Vitória	Mutual consent	3 January 2019[36]	4th	Bruno Lage	3 January 2019

Season summary

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Benfica (C)	34	28	3	3	103	31	+72	87	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Porto	34	27	4	3	74	20	+54	85	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
3	Sporting CP	34	23	5	6	72	33	+39	74	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
4	Braga	34	21	4	9	56	37	+19	67	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round[a]
5	Vitória de Guimarães	34	15	7	12	46	34	+12	52[b]	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round[a]
6	Moreirense	34	16	4	14	39	44	−5	52[b]
7	Rio Ave	34	12	9	13	50	52	−2	45
8	Boavista	34	13	5	16	34	40	−6	44
9	Belenenses SAD	34	10	13	11	42	51	−9	43
10	Santa Clara	34	11	9	14	43	45	−2	42
11	Marítimo	34	12	3	19	26	44	−18	39[c]
12	Portimonense	34	11	6	17	44	59	−15	39[c]
13	Vitória de Setúbal	34	8	12	14	28	39	−11	36[d]
14	Desportivo das Aves	34	10	6	18	35	49	−14	36[d]
15	Tondela	34	9	8	17	40	54	−14	35
16	Chaves (R)	34	8	8	18	34	57	−23	32	Relegation to LigaPro
17	Nacional (R)	34	7	7	20	33	73	−40	28
18	Feirense (R)	34	3	11	20	27	64	−37	20

Source: Liga Portugal
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.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since the winners of the 2018–19 Taça de Portugal, Sporting CP, qualified for European competition based on league position, the spot awarded to the third-placed team (Europa League third qualifying round) was passed to the fourth-placed team, and the spot awarded to the fourth-placed team (Europa League second qualifying round) was passed to the fifth-placed team.
2. Vitória de Guimarães finished ahead of Moreirense on head-to-head points: Vitória de Guimarães 1–0 Moreirense, Moreirense 1–3 Vitória de Guimarães.
3. Marítimo finished ahead of Portimonense on head-to-head away goals: Marítimo 2–1 Portimonense, Portimonense 3–2 Marítimo.
4. Vitória de Setúbal finished ahead of Desportivo das Aves on head-to-head goal difference: Vitória de Setúbal 2–0 Desportivo das Aves, Desportivo das Aves 2–1 Vitória de Setúbal.

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	7	2	2	1	1	3	1	3	5	4	4	4	4	2	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Porto	1	1	5	4	3	2	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Sporting CP	3	2	2	3	5	4	5	5	3	2	2	2	2	3	2	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Braga	2	5	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	4	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Vitória de Guimarães	10	16	12	8	9	9	7	8	8	7	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5
Moreirense	14	10	10	13	17	11	15	12	7	6	8	10	8	7	6	6	6	7	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6
Rio Ave	15	7	7	7	4	5	4	4	4	5	6	6	6	10	10	9	9	10	9	9	8	8	9	9	10	9	9	9	9	8	8	7	7	7
Boavista	4	9	9	12	14	15	11	14	15	16	16	14	12	13	13	13	13	15	16	15	13	12	11	11	13	13	13	14	12	14	13	11	9	8
Belenenses SAD	8	7	7	10	8	12	12	9	10	10	9	7	7	6	8	5	5	5	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	9	10	9
Santa Clara	11	13	15	9	12	7	6	6	6	9	10	9	9	8	9	8	8	9	10	10	10	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	9	8	8	10
Marítimo	8	11	6	5	6	6	8	11	12	13	14	13	15	15	16	16	16	14	12	13	15	13	12	15	11	11	11	13	10	12	12	10	11	11
Portimonense	15	18	18	17	15	17	13	10	11	11	11	11	11	9	7	7	7	8	8	8	9	10	10	10	9	10	10	10	11	10	11	13	12	12
Vitória de Setúbal	4	6	11	11	13	14	10	7	9	8	7	8	10	11	12	10	10	11	11	11	12	15	13	14	15	15	14	11	13	13	14	14	13	13
Desportivo das Aves	15	15	17	17	18	16	18	18	16	12	13	15	14	16	15	15	15	17	15	16	14	16	16	13	12	12	12	12	14	11	10	12	14	14
Tondela	11	14	16	16	11	13	16	16	13	14	15	17	17	14	14	14	14	13	13	12	11	11	14	16	16	16	16	15	15	15	15	16	15	15
Chaves	18	12	14	14	10	10	14	15	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	16	16	15	16	16
Nacional	13	17	13	15	16	18	17	17	18	17	12	12	13	12	11	11	11	12	14	14	16	14	15	12	14	14	15	16	16	17	17	17	17	17
Feirense	4	4	4	6	7	8	9	13	14	15	17	16	16	17	17	17	17	16	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18

	Leader and UEFA Champions League group stage
	UEFA Champions League third qualifying round
	UEFA Europa League Third group stage
	UEFA Europa League Second qualifying round
	UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round
	Relegation to LigaPro

Source: Liga Portugal (in Portuguese)

Results

Home \ Away	BEL	BEN	BOA	BRA	CHA	DAV	FEI	MAR	MOR	NAC	PRT	POR	RAV	STC	SCP	TON	VGU	VSE
Belenenses SAD	—	2–0	0–0	0–3	1–0	5–2	4–0	0–1	0–1	3–0	2–2	2–3	1–3	1–1	1–8	2–2	1–0	0–0
Benfica	2–2	—	5–1	6–2	4–0	2–0	4–0	6–0	1–3	10–0	5–1	1–0	4–2	4–1	1–1	1–0	3–2	4–2
Boavista	2–0	0–2	—	4–2	1–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	3–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–2	2–0	0–0	1–0
Braga	0–2	1–4	1–0	—	2–1	3–1	4–0	2–0	2–0	4–2	2–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	2–1
Chaves	2–2	2–2	1–1	0–1	—	1–2	0–0	1–0	1–2	4–1	2–0	1–4	1–1	0–0	1–3	2–1	0–1	1–2
Desportivo das Aves	3–0	0–3	2–0	0–2	0–1	—	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–3	3–0	0–1	2–1	1–2	1–3	2–2	1–1	2–1
Feirense	0–0	1–4	1–1	0–2	4–4	2–1	—	1–1	1–3	0–0	0–1	1–2	2–0	2–2	1–3	2–4	1–2	0–1
Marítimo	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	2–1	0–1	2–0	—	3–2	3–2	2–1	0–2	0–2	1–0	0–0	2–0	1–3	0–1
Moreirense	1–1	0–4	2–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	—	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–3	2–0	1–3	1–1
Nacional	0–1	0–4	0–0	0–3	2–0	0–0	4–0	1–0	1–2	—	0–1	0–4	0–1	0–3	0–1	3–2	1–0	0–0
Portimonense	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	3–2	0–2	5–1	—	0–3	0–1	2–2	4–2	3–2	3–2	3–1
Porto	3–0	1–2	2–0	1–0	5–0	4–0	2–0	3–0	3–0	3–1	4–1	—	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–3	2–0
Rio Ave	2–2	2–3	2–1	1–2	1–0	0–2	0–0	3–1	1–2	3–3	2–1	2–2	—	1–2	1–3	2–2	2–1	1–1
Santa Clara	2–3	0–2	4–2	3–3	1–0	0–0	4–4	0–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	1–3	—	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–0
Sporting CP	2–1	2–4	3–0	3–0	2–1	4–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	5–2	3–1	0–0	3–0	1–0	—	1–1	2–0	2–1
Tondela	0–1	1–3	1–0	0–1	5–2	0–2	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	3–2	0–3	1–1	1–3	2–1	—	1–0	1–2
Vitória de Guimarães	5–1	0–1	3–1	1–1	4–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	2–0	0–0	3–2	2–0	1–0	1–0	—	1–1
Vitória de Setúbal	0–0	0–1	0–3	0–1	0–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	3–0	1–2	1–1	0–2	1–3	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–1	—

Updated to match(es) played on 19 May 2019. Source: Liga Portugal
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[37]
1	Haris Seferovic	Benfica	23
2	Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP	20
3	Rafa Silva	Benfica	17
4	Bas Dost	Sporting CP	15
	João Félix	Benfica
	Tiquinho Soares	Porto
	Dyego Sousa	Braga
8	Pizzi	Benfica	13
9	1 Wilson Eduardo	Braga	12
	Tomané	Tondela

1. ^ A former Portuguese international player at youth levels, Eduardo switched allegiances to play for Angola during the season.

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists[38]
1	Pizzi	Benfica	19
2	Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP	13
3	André Almeida	Benfica	12
	Álex Grimaldo	Benfica
5	Jesús Corona	Porto	9
	Marcos Acuña	Sporting CP
7	Alex Telles	Porto	8
8	Otávio	Porto	7
	João Félix	Benfica
	António Xavier	Tondela
	Nuno Sequeira	Braga
	Chiquinho	Moreirense

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Primeira Liga hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Pizzi	Benfica	Vitória de Guimarães	3–2 (H)	10 August 2018
Vítor Gomes	Aves	Portimonense	3–0 (H)	1 October 2018
Hildeberto Pereira	Vitória de Setúbal	Moreirense	3–0 (H)	6 October 2018
Dyego Sousa	Braga	Feirense	4–0 (H)	14 December 2018
Tiquinho Soares	Porto	Chaves	1–4 (A)	18 January 2019
Sardor Rashidov	Nacional	Feirense	4–0 (H)	16 February 2019
William	Chaves	Nacional	4–1 (H)	28 April 2019
Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP	Belenenses SAD	1–8 (A)	5 May 2019
Guilherme Schettine	Santa Clara	Feirense	4–4 (H)	11 May 2019

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Goal of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Against/Date
August[39]	Nuno Manta Santos	Feirense	Pizzi	Benfica	Éber Bessa	Vitória de Setúbal	Nacional 26 August
September[40]	Abel Ferreira	Braga	Shoya Nakajima	Portimonense	Osama Rashid	Santa Clara	Nacional 30 September
October/November[41][42][43]	Sérgio Conceição	Porto	Bas Dost	Sporting CP	Niltinho	Chaves	Sporting CP 11 November
December[44]			Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP	Jovane Cabral	Sporting CP	Rio Ave 3 December
January[45]	Ivo Vieira	Moreirense	João Félix	Benfica	Álex Grimaldo	Benfica	Boavista 29 January
February[46]	Bruno Lage	Benfica	Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP	Steven Petkov	Feirense	Sporting CP 10 February
March[citation needed]					Edgar Costa	Marítimo	Nacional 31 March
April[47][48][49]					Rafa Silva	Benfica

Month	Goalkeeper of the Month		Defender of the Month		Midfielder of the Month		Forward of the Month
	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club
August[50]	Caio Secco	Feirense	Diogo Leite	Porto	Pizzi	Benfica	Edinho	Feirense
September[51]			Éder Militão	Porto	Stephen Eustáquio	Chaves	Dyego Sousa	Braga
October/November[52][53][54]	Iker Casillas	Porto			Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP	Bas Dost	Sporting CP
December[55]	Muriel	Belenenses SAD
January[56]	Jhonatan	Moreirense					Dyego Sousa	Braga
February[57]	Odisseas Vlachodimos	Benfica	Álex Grimaldo	Benfica			Haris Seferovic	Benfica
March[citation needed]	Charles	Marítimo	Ferro	Benfica			Tiquinho Soares	Porto
April[58][59][48][60]			Rodrigo Soares	Desportivo das Aves			Luiz Phellype	Sporting CP

Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 5 July 2019.^[61]

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Bruno Fernandes	Sporting CP
Manager of the Season	Bruno Lage	Benfica
Goal of the Season	Jovane Cabral	Sporting CP
Young Player of the Season	João Félix	Benfica
Top scorer	Haris Seferovic	Benfica
Player Fair-Play Prize	Éder Militão	Porto
Club Fair-Play Prize	Belenenses SAD
Turf of the Season	Portimonense

Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Iker Casillas (Porto)
Defenders	Alex Telles (Porto)	Éder Militão (Porto)		Jérémy Mathieu (Sporting CP)		Álex Grimaldo (Benfica)
Midfielders	João Félix (Benfica)		Bruno Fernandes (Sporting CP)		Héctor Herrera (Porto)
Attackers	Haris Seferovic (Benfica)		Moussa Marega (Porto)		Rafa Silva (Benfica)