The clowns are organising proceedings yet again in Portuguese football as the farcical situation that is the semi-final of the Taça da Liga goes from bad to worse. The two semi-finals are supposed to take place this Wednesday, but with the deciding committee not giving a verdict until tomorrow (03/02/09) Benfica don’t know if they’ll be playing Belenenses or Vitória da Guimarães. Not only that but Porto president Pinto da Costa was on the phone to Sporting president Filipe Soares Franco telling him he won’t be bringing his Dragões to Lisbon if Benfica’s semi-final is called off. We’ll give our verdict on this cock-up in part one of the podcast, along with analysis of the two most exciting games of the weekend, both involving the teams whose goal average is causing the problems in the Taça da Liga: Guimarães, who beat Setúbal 2-4 at Estádio do Bomfim, and Belenenses, who lost 1-3 at home to Porto.
In part 2 we’ll discuss Benfica’s talismanic match-winner Pedro Mantorras, who scored Benfica’s winning goal in their 1-0 victory over Rio Ave, played in atrocious conditions at Estadio da Luz. Finally we’ll discuss some of the latest transfers to take place before the closing of the transfer window.
Please keep the comments coming; it’s great to hear alternative points of view.
Thanks for listening!
Steve and Phil
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