One of them will be champion without dreamed it

It was August 2024. After a busy summer, a new time began and, with it, new ambitions of titles among the three ‘great’ of Portuguese football. Sporting had been sacred champion three years after breaking a long fast. In the middle of the title festivities, Ruben Amorim promised a two -time championship that has been escaping for over 70 years to the ‘lions’. The desire was real. And after 11 straight wins to open, even more so he became. Until everything changed in November. But we go there.

At that time, Roger Schmidt had been fired from Benfica. After a time far from the glow of the debut season, five points lost in the first four rounds would lay everything to lose, forcing President Rui Costa to act.

Bruno Lage, champion for the ‘incarnates’ in 2018/19, was the choice of board, which motivated some distrust of fans, the result of the recent little auspicious adventure in Botafogo Brazilians, being unemployed for months. Luís Filipe Vieira even commented: « Surely Bruno Lage was not the first option. »

However, Lage’s return to the house turned out to be right at the beginning, with eight straight triumphs who put Benfica in the lead, much due to his eternal rival. Emitted by Manchester United, Ruben Amorim returned to ‘cheer up’ the championship.

It is never known what would have happened if Ruben Amorim had led the ‘lions’ by the end of the time, but the truth is that Sporting seemed unstoppable and on the way to this two -time promised championship. João Pereira was the man who followed.

A risky choice from team B and with very little experience, and Frederico Varandas, this time, did not have a ‘clinical’ eye. It would last only four journeys, having contributed only one victory, a draw and two losses.

With Benfica in front of a few days from the first lap derby, Varandas reacted to Sporting’s ‘free fall’ and hired Rui Borges to Vitória de Guimarães, to make a brilliant campaign in the League Conference, albeit something intermittent in the I Liga.

Borges never lost
The debut could not have been better. In Alvalade, Sporting beat Benfica 1-0 and returned to the lead, along with FC Porto, which would also undergo a crisis and a new technical change shortly thereafter, without having any effect.

Desaire affected the ‘eagles’, which suffered two more losses in the following three days -against Sporting Braga and Casa Pia -, motivating a new wave of criticism, while Sporting would again shoot the front with six points.

Rui Borges has never lost to the championship since taking over Sporting, but three draws in a row with FC Porto, Arouca and AVS allowed Benfica to recover, in a union of forces that would lead to nine consecutive wins.

Sporting drew at the reception to Sporting de Braga, for matchday 28, but Benfica did the same the following week against Arouca, which leads us to the current point: a Lisbon derby who can define both teams as champions.

From 6 pm on Saturday at Estádio da Luz, Sporting is champion if they win and Benfica is champion if they win for two or more goals. The tie or a tangential triumph of the ‘incarnates’ advances everything to the 34th and last journey. It is emotion until the last minute.

If Bruno Lage already has experience in fighting for titles without starting the time at the club, as in 2018/19, when ‘jumped’ from team B to the first team, yielding Rui Vitória, Rui Borges can win the first short career trophy.

Coach dance
For the first time in the history of the Portuguese Championship, the three ‘great’ changed coach during the same time. This was also the case of FC Porto, in a season that even started with the conquest of the Super Cup, but quickly ‘fell’.

Former Assistant of Sérgio Conceição, Vítor Bruno litigated with his predecessor in office when he assumed him, under the confidence of André Villas-Boas, and even intruded on the fight for leadership at first, but the terrible entrance in 2025 was the ‘gout of water’.

Two losses and three draws, followed by the transition between Vítor Bruno, the interim José Tavares and Martín Anselmi, pushed FC Porto from this fight for the title, which he could no longer recover, slowly justifying the hiring.

The best that the dragons managed, with Anselmi, were two consecutive wins in the championship, and, with two hours to compete, fight Sporting de Braga for the last position of the podium, both with 65 points.

The unprecedented changes in all three ‘great’ coincide with an atypical year regarding the ‘dance’ of coaches in the I Liga, with only four clubs to keep the same helmsman from the beginning: Santa Clara, Estoril Praia, Casa Pia and Nacional.

Vasco Matos, in the Azoreans, Scottish Ian Cathro, in the ‘Canarinhos’, João Pereira, in the ‘Galers’, and Tiago Margarido, in the Madeirans, are the only resistant at a time when some clubs were led by five coaches.

In this accounting, the winners are Gil Vicente and Boavista, followed by AVS, with four different technicians throughout the season – José Mota surrendered Rui Ferreira this week. Sporting, FC Porto, Vitória de Guimarães and Famalicão totaled three.