After a very intense day in the I Liga championship, the Portuguese Cup returns tonight with a huge classic, the eternal Lisbon derby that pits Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal against each other.
The weekend we just experienced was equally intense with different fortunes for the three highest-rated teams in the championship. While Sporting and Benfica won, both by the minimum difference, FCPorto floundered at Amoreira, where Estoril Praia inflicted their third defeat this season.
The Porto fans are now faced with what seems to be their only objective until the end of the season, the Portuguese Cup, where they will have to face Vitória de Guimarães twice, a difficult team, who are enjoying an excellent moment of form, with very positive results in line with very pleasant performances.
Tonight, eagles and lions will fight at Estádio da Luz to qualify one of them for the Cup final to be held in Vale do Jamor, at the end of next May.
Sporting travels to its neighbor’s ground with an advantage, albeit a slight advantage.
They won 2-1 in Alvalade in the first leg of the semi-finals, which means that their task this Tuesday is very demanding in order to maintain that advantage.
The moment of the two teams is admittedly different: Sporting has confirmed a lot of consistency to which they have combined good results, with some decisive players in full form and, therefore, revealing the ability to come out of the game gracefully.
However, Benfica also has high quality players, who in games like this are always capable of surpassing themselves.
There are, therefore, a handful of good reasons for us to eagerly await this second leg, aware that we should hope for a good game and, as is always desired, with a fair final winner.
For now, all we need to do is know your name.
