2021–22 Primeira Liga

The 2021–22 Liga Portugal (also known as Liga Portugal Bwin^[2] for sponsorship reasons) was the 88th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs, and the first season under the current Liga Portugal title. This was the fifth Primeira Liga season to use video assistant referee (VAR). The start and end dates for the season were released on 21 May 2021,^[3] and the fixtures were released on 8 July 2021.^[4]

Liga Portugal

Season	2021–22
Dates	6 August 2021 – 15 May 2022
Champions	Porto 30th title
Relegated	B SAD Tondela Moreirense
Champions League	Porto Sporting CP Benfica
Europa League	Braga
Europa Conference League	Gil Vicente Vitória de Guimarães
Matches played	306
Goals scored	807 (2.64 per match)
Top goalscorer	Darwin Núñez (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Porto 7–0 Portimonense (16 April 2022)
Biggest away win	B SAD 0–7 Benfica (27 November 2021)
Highest scoring	Benfica 7–1 Marítimo (19 December 2021)
Longest winning run	16 matches Porto[1]
Longest unbeaten run	30 matches Porto[1]
Longest winless run	16 matches Vizela[1]
Longest losing run	6 matches B SAD[1]
Highest attendance	48,790 Benfica 1–3 Sporting CP[1] (30 December 2021)
Lowest attendance	439 Tondela 3–2 Famalicão (25 September 2021)[note 1]
Total attendance	2,364,659[1]
Average attendance	7,482[1]
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

Sporting CP were the defending champions, having won their nineteenth Primeira Liga and their first title since the 2001–02 season at the previous season. Estoril, Vizela and Arouca joined as the promoted clubs from the 2020–21 Liga Portugal 2. They replaced Farense, Nacional and Rio Ave, which were relegated to Liga Portugal 2 the previous season.

This season saw the return of full capacity crowds, after the final third of the 2019–20 and the entirety of the 2020–21 seasons were held with limited or no attendance due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal.^[5]

Porto secured their 30th league title with one match remaining, following a 1–0 away victory over rivals Benfica on 7 May 2022.^[6]

Teams

Eighteen teams compete in the league – the top fifteen teams from the previous season and three teams promoted from the LigaPro: Estoril,^[7] Vizela^[8] and Arouca.^[9]

Changes

Estoril (promoted after a three-year absence) and Vizela (promoted after a 36-year absence) were promoted from the 2020–21 Liga Portugal 2 (finishing 1st and 2nd places), replacing Farense and Nacional (both relegated after only one year in the top flight).

Arouca (promoted after a four-year absence) was promoted after finishing in 3rd place in 2020–21 Liga Portugal 2 and winning the Promotion play-offs against Rio Ave (relegated after thirteen years in the top flight).

Stadia and locations

Benfica

Braga

Porto

Sporting CP

Famalicão

V. Guimarães

Boavista

Moreirense

Gil Vicente

Paços de Ferreira

B-SAD

Tondela

Portimonense

Estoril

Vizela

Arouca

Location of teams in 2021–22 Primeira Liga (Mainland)

Marítimo

Location of teams in 2021–22 Primeira Liga (Madeira)

Santa Clara

Location of teams in 2021–22 Primeira Liga (Azores)

Personnel and sponsors

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Main Sponsor
Arouca	Armando Evangelista	Thales Oleques	Skita	Construções Carlos Pinho
B-SAD	Franclim Carvalho	Afonso Taira	Kelme	Betway
Benfica	Nélson Veríssimo	André Almeida	Adidas	Emirates
Boavista	Petit	Rafael Bracali	Kelme	Placard
Braga	Carlos Carvalhal	Ricardo Horta	Hummel	Betano
Estoril	Bruno Pinheiro	Joãozinho	Kappa	Solverde
Famalicão	Rui Pedro Silva	Gustavo Assunção	Macron	Placard
Gil Vicente	Ricardo Soares	Rúben Fernandes	Lacatoni	Barcelos Tourism
Marítimo	Vasco Seabra	Edgar Costa	Nike	Betano
Moreirense	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Lazar Rosić	CDT	Placard
Paços de Ferreira	César Peixoto	Marco Baixinho	Joma	Solverde
Portimonense	Paulo Sérgio	Pedro Sá	Mizuno	McDonald's
Porto	Sérgio Conceição	Pepe	New Balance	MEO
Santa Clara	Mário Silva	Anderson Carvalho	Kelme	Solverde
Sporting CP	Ruben Amorim	Sebastián Coates	Nike	Betano
Tondela	Nuno Campos	João Pedro	CDT	Cabriz
Vitória de Guimarães	Pepa	André André	Macron	Placard
Vizela	Álvaro Pacheco	Marcos Paulo	Lacatoni	Vizela Tourism

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner	Date of vacancy	Pos in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Ref.
Pacos de Ferreira	Pepa	Signed by Vitória de Guimarães	1 July 2021	Pre-season	Jorge Simão	1 July 2021	[10]
Vitória de Guimarães	Moreno (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell	1 July 2021		Pepa	1 July 2021	[11]
Boavista	Jesualdo Ferreira	Mutual consent	1 July 2021		João Pedro Sousa	1 July 2021	[12][13]
Santa Clara	Daniel Ramos		7 October 2021	15th	Nuno Campos	12 October 2021	[14][15]
B-SAD	Petit		19 October 2021	17th	Filipe Cândido	19 October 2021	[16]
Marítimo	Julio Velázquez	Sacked	11 November 2021	17th	Vasco Seabra	14 November 2021	[17][18]
Boavista	João Pedro Sousa	Mutual consent	30 November 2021	11th	Petit	30 November 2021	[19]
Moreirense	João Henriques		30 November 2021	16th	Lito Vidigal	4 December 2021	[20][21]
Pacos de Ferreira	Jorge Simão	Sacked	11 December 2021	13th	César Peixoto	16 December 2021	[22][23]
Santa Clara	Nuno Campos		13 December 2021	14th	Tiago Sousa (caretaker)	13 December 2021	[24]
Famalicão	Ivo Vieira		19 December 2021	16th	Rui Pedro Silva	19 December 2021	[25]
Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Mutual consent	27 December 2021	3rd	Nélson Veríssimo (caretaker)	27 December 2021	[26]
Moreirense	Lito Vidigal	Sacked	5 January 2022	16th	Ricardo Sá Pinto	7 January 2022	[27][28]
Santa Clara	Tiago Sousa	End of caretaker spell	10 January 2022	14th	Mário Silva	10 January 2022	[29]
B-SAD	Filipe Cândido	Resigned	11 January 2022	18th	Franclim Carvalho	11 January 2022	[30]
Tondela	Pako Ayestarán	Sacked	16 March 2022	16th	Nuno Campos	16 March 2022	[31][32]

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Porto (C)	34	29	4	1	86	22	+64	91	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Sporting CP	34	27	4	3	73	23	+50	85
3	Benfica	34	23	5	6	78	30	+48	74	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
4	Braga	34	19	8	7	52	31	+21	65	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
5	Gil Vicente	34	13	12	9	47	42	+5	51	Qualification for the Europa Conference League third qualifying round[a]
6	Vitória de Guimarães	34	13	9	12	50	41	+9	48	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round[a]
7	Santa Clara	34	9	13	12	38	54	−16	40
8	Famalicão	34	9	12	13	45	51	−6	39[b]
9	Estoril	34	9	12	13	36	43	−7	39[b]
10	Marítimo	34	9	11	14	39	44	−5	38[c]
11	Paços de Ferreira	34	9	11	14	29	44	−15	38[c]
12	Boavista	34	7	17	10	39	52	−13	38[c]
13	Portimonense	34	10	8	16	31	45	−14	38[c]
14	Vizela	34	7	12	15	37	58	−21	33
15	Arouca	34	7	10	17	30	54	−24	31
16	Moreirense (R)	34	7	8	19	33	51	−18	29	Qualification for the Relegation play-offs
17	Tondela (R)	34	7	7	20	41	67	−26	28	Relegation to Liga Portugal 2
18	B-SAD (R)	34	5	11	18	23	55	−32	26

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 2021–22 Taça de Portugal, Porto, qualified for the Champions League based on league position, the spot awarded to the fourth-placed team (Europa Conference League third qualifying round) was passed to the fifth-placed team, and the spot awarded to the fifth-placed team (Europa Conference League second qualifying round) was passed to the sixth-placed team.
2. Head-to-head points: Famalicão 4, Estoril 1.
3. Head-to-head points: Marítimo 10, Paços de Ferreira 8, Boavista 7, Portimonense 6.

Relegation play-offs

The relegation play-offs took place on 21 and 29 May 2022 between Moreirense who finished 16th in the Primeira Liga and Chaves who finished 3rd in Liga Portugal 2.

All times are WEST (UTC+1).

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Chaves	2–1	Moreirense	2–0	0–1

21 May 2022 (2022-05-21)

20:00

Chaves	2–0	Moreirense
João Teixeira 15' João Correia 67'	Report

Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira, Chaves

Attendance: 4,416

Referee: Hugo Miguel

29 May 2022 (2022-05-29)

19:30

Moreirense	1–0	Chaves
Paulinho 25'	Report

Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas, Moreira de Cónegos

Attendance: 4,051

Referee: António Nobre

Chaves won 2–1 on aggregate and were promoted to 2022–23 Primeira Liga; Moreirense were relegated to 2022–23 Liga Portugal 2.

Results

Home \ Away	ARO	BEL	BEN	BOA	BRA	EST	FAM	GIL	MAR	MOR	PAC	PTM	POR	STA	SPO	TON	VSC	VIZ
Arouca	—	0–0	0–2	2–1	0–6	0–2	2–1	2–1	0–3	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–2	2–0	2–2	1–4
Belenenses SAD	2–1	—	0–7[a]	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–3	1–1	1–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–4	2–1	1–4	0–2	1–0	1–0
Benfica	2–0	3–1	—	3–1	6–1	2–1	0–0	1–2	7–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	1–3	2–1	3–0	1–1
Boavista	1–0	0–0	2–2	—	1–1	1–1	2–5	1–1	1–1	1–0	3–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	0–3	1–1	1–1	2–2
Braga	1–0	1–0	3–2	2–2	—	2–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	2–0	2–1	3–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	3–1	0–0	4–1
Estoril	1–2	2–2	1–1	2–3	0–0	—	2–2	2–2	2–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	2–3	2–2	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–2
Famalicão	0–0	1–0	1–4	1–2	3–2	3–1	—	2–2	0–0	5–0	0–0	0–3	1–2	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–1
Gil Vicente	1–1	2–0	0–2	3–0	0–1	0–0	4–0	—	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–2	2–2	0–3	3–0	3–2	2–2
Marítimo	2–2	1–1	0–1	4–0	0–2	0–0	0–1	1–2	—	0–0	2–0	0–1	1–1	4–1	1–1	1–3	0–1	2–0
Moreirense	2–1	4–1	1–2	1–2	2–3	1–0	2–2	2–2	0–1	—	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–2	2–0	0–1	4–1
Paços de Ferreira	0–0	2–2	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–3	2–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	—	1–1	2–4	2–1	0–2	1–1	1–2	2–1
Portimonense	1–1	2–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–0	0–1	—	0–3	2–1	2–3	1–2	1–1	0–0
Porto	3–0	2–0	3–1	4–1	1–0	2–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	5–0	2–1	7–0	—	3–0	2–2	4–0	2–1	4–2
Santa Clara	2–1	0–0	0–5	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–2	2–2	2–0	1–1	0–3	—	3–2	2–2	1–0	3–1
Sporting CP	2–0	2–0	0–2	2–0	1–2	3–0	2–0	4–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	3–2	1–1	4–0	—	2–0	1–0	3–0
Tondela	2–2	1–1	1–3	2–2	0–1	1–2	3–2	0–3	4–2	2–1	0–1	0–3	1–3	3–0	1–3	—	1–1	2–3
Vitória de Guimarães	1–3	0–0	1–3	1–1	2–1	3–1	2–1	5–0	2–1	2–1	4–0	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–3	5–2	—	4–0
Vizela	2–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–4	1–1	0–2	2–1	3–2	—

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.
Notes:

1. The match between Belenenses SAD and Benfica was abandoned after 48 minutes of play with the visiting team leading by 0–7 after the host team was unable to field more than six players. Belenenses SAD originally fielded nine players after most of their team tested positive for COVID-19 before the match. In the return for the second half, two Belenenses SAD players abandoned the match with one more player abandoning in the 48th minute, leaving only six players on the pitch which forced the abandonment of the match.^[33]

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Darwin Núñez	Benfica	26
2	Mehdi Taremi	Porto	20
3	Ricardo Horta	Braga	19
4	Fran Navarro	Gil Vicente	16
5	Pablo Sarabia	Sporting	15
	Óscar Estupiñán	Vitória de Guimarães
7	Luis Díaz	Porto	14
	Evanilson	Porto
	Simon Banza	Famalicão
10	Samuel Lino	Gil Vicente	12

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Primeira Liga hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Mehdi Taremi	Porto	Tondela	3–1 (A)	23 October 2021
João Pedro	Tondela	Marítimo	4–2 (H)	7 November 2021
Darwin Núñez	Benfica	B SAD	7–0 (A)	27 November 2021
Darwin Núñez	Benfica	Famalicão	4–1 (A)	13 December 2021
Paulinho	Sporting	Portimonense	3–2 (H)	29 December 2021
Vitinha	Braga	Arouca	6–0 (A)	30 December 2021
Evanilson	Porto	B SAD	4–1 (A)	16 January 2022
Darwin Núñez	Benfica	B SAD	3–1 (H)	9 April 2022
Joel Tagueu	Marítimo	Boavista	4–0 (H)	16 April 2022
Mehdi Taremi	Porto	Portimonense	7–0 (H)	16 April 2022

Notes

(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Antonio Adán	Sporting CP	17
2	Diogo Costa	Porto	15
	Matheus	Braga
4	André Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	10
	Odysseas Vlachodimos	Benfica
	Dani Figueira	Estoril
	Samuel Portugal	Portimonense
8	Paulo Victor	Marítimo	9
	Marco Pereira	Santa Clara
10	Luiz Júnior	Famalicão	8
	Luiz Felipe	B SAD

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 13
  • Lucas Possignolo (Portimonense)
• Most red cards: 3
  • Alfa Semedo (Vitória de Guimarães)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 118
  • Vitória de Guimarães
• Most red cards: 11
  • Belenenses SAD

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		Goalkeeper of the Month		Defender of the Month		Midfielder of the Month		Forward of the Month		Manager of the Month		Goal of the Month
	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Lucas Veríssimo	Benfica	Antonio Adán	Sporting CP	Lucas Veríssimo	Benfica	Pedro Gonçalves	Sporting CP	Toni Martínez	Porto	Bruno Pinheiro	Estoril	Álex Grimaldo	Benfica
September	Darwin Núñez		Diogo Costa	Porto	Pedro Porro	Sporting CP	João Mário	Benfica	Darwin Núñez	Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Benfica	Gustavo Sauer	Boavista
October/November	Luis Díaz	Porto	Antonio Adán	Sporting CP	Sebastián Coates		Matheus Nunes	Sporting CP	Luis Díaz	Porto	Ruben Amorim	Sporting CP	Luis Díaz	Porto
December	Vitinha		Diogo Costa	Porto	Gonçalo Inácio		Vitinha	Porto			Sérgio Conceição	Porto	Arsénio	Arouca
January					Chancel Mbemba	Porto			Evanilson		Ricardo Soares	Gil Vicente	Evanilson	Porto
February	Pedrinho	Gil Vicente			Matheus Reis	Sporting	Pedrinho	Gil Vicente	Ricardo Horta	Braga			Ricardo Horta	Braga
March	Vitinha	Porto					Vitinha	Porto	Islam Slimani	Sporting	Sérgio Conceição	Porto	Rafa Silva	Benfica
April	Ricardo Horta	Braga	Matheus	Braga	David Carmo	Braga	Fábio Vieira	Porto	Ricardo Horta	Braga	Carlos Carvalhal	Braga	André Silva	Arouca

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Darwin Núñez[34]	Benfica
Manager of the Season	Sérgio Conceição[35]	Porto
Goal of the Season	André Silva[36]	Arouca
Young Player of the Season	Vitinha[37]	Porto
Top scorer	Darwin Núñez[38]	Benfica
Neno Club Fair-Play Prize	Benfica

Costa Pepe Porro Mbemba Reis Otávio Vitinha Nunes Horta Taremi Núñez Team of the Year[39]

Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Diogo Costa (Porto)
Defence	Pedro Porro (Sporting CP)	Pepe (Porto)		Chancel Mbemba (Porto)	Matheus Reis (Sporting CP)
Midfield	Ricardo Horta (Braga)		Matheus Nunes (Sporting CP)	Otávio (Porto)		Vitinha (Porto)	Darwin Núñez (Benfica)
Attack	Mehdi Taremi (Porto)

Number of teams by district

Rank	District Football Associations	Number	Teams
1	Braga	6	Braga, Famalicão, Gil Vicente, Moreirense, Vitória de Guimarães and Vizela
2	Lisbon	4	Belenenses SAD, Benfica, Estoril and Sporting CP
3	Porto	3	Boavista, Paços de Ferreira and Porto
4	Aveiro	1	Arouca
	Faro		Portimonense
	Funchal		Marítimo
	Ponta Delgada		Santa Clara
	Viseu		Tondela

Notes

1. Some league matches played were played behind closed doors without any spectators or with a limited capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal