With this past Wednesday’s Champions League game against Juventus on the horizon, FC Porto manager Nuno Espírito Santo rested Danilo Pereira and Yacine Brahimi for the visit of basement side Tondela.

Tiquinho Soares almost gave the home side an early lead with a headed attempt that was pushed wide by Cláudio Ramos. Three minutes before the break referee Luis Ferreira awarded the Dragons a very dubious penalty which André Silva slotted past Cláudio Ramos.
Having already picked up a yellow for the alleged foul inside the box, Osorio was unfortunate enough to collide with Tiquinho Soares on the brink of half-time.
Replays showed that it was the Porto forward who had struck Osorio in the face, but amazingly the referee pulled out a second yellow and send-off the Tondela man for obstruction. Playing against ten men Porto started the second period driving forward but wasting several close range opportunities.
Rúben Neves then did from far, what his compatriots had failed to do from close range.
The 19 year-old midfielder brought the stadium to its feet with a purposeful right-footed strike into the top corner from some twenty-five metres.
Tiquinho Soares added a third before Óliver Torres and André Silva combined to set-up Diogo Jota who lashed home a first-time volley beyond the goalkeeper’s reach to make it 4-0.
SC Braga manager Jorge Simão aims to break the three-way-monopoly in Portugal and take the league title for ’Os Arsenalistas’ by 2020, so the visit of Benfica gave them the chance to measure their progress.
Early on the home side came close to taking the lead but a Pedro Santos volley crashed against the side-netting of Júlio César’s goal.
Konstantinos Mitroglou has been in sparkling form this season and twice in the opening thirty minutes he went close to giving the Eagles the lead. At the other end Rodrigo Battaglia saw his header glance off the post.
The second-half was less intense until ten minutes from time when that man Konstantinos Mitroglou found himself in the area with the ball at his feet and his back to goal.
The Greek international managed to squeeze between Pedro Santos and Marcelo Goiano before dispatching the winner past Marafona in the Braga goal. Sporting Lisbon keeper Rui Patrício celebrated his 400th appearance for the Lisbon club as they entertained Rio Ave at the Estádio José Alvalade.
Somewhat against the run of play Sporting scored the all important winning goal in the twentieth minute.
On the counter-attack William Carvalho broke clear to set-up Gelson Martins who failed to beat Cássio in the Rio Ave goal but the rebound fell to Alan Ruiz who netted his third goal in as many games.
January’s ‘Player of the Month’ Bas Dost, could have contributed yet another goal to add to his collection five minutes before the interval but Gelson’s low cross proved to be a stretch too far for the Dutchman.
Deep into stoppage time Roderick had the ball in the net for Rio Ave but, much to the relief of the home fans, it was ruled out for offside.
With twelve games remaining in the Primeira Liga, Benfica (54) remain a point ahead of FC Porto (53), Sporting (44) are in third place six points ahead of SC Braga (38) with Vitoria de Guimarães (36) back in fifth.