Estoril’s home game against FC Porto was abandoned at half-time following concerns about the safety of the stand where the Porto fans were housed.
Sporting boss Jorge Jesus, unveiled one of his winter acquisitions, Ruben Ribeiro, lining up in attack with Bas Dost for the visit of CD Aves.
Ribeiro, who moved from Rio Ave for €400,000 just days earlier, took half-an-hour to make his mark when his measured cross was headed home by Bas Dost.
The Dutchman added a second from the penalty spot, six minutes after the interval.
In the final minute Bas Dost converted Cristiano Piccini’s cross for his second consecutive hat-trick which brought his tally to nineteen for the season.
SC Braga entertained Benfica knowing that victory would take them level on points with the Lisbon outfit.
But it was the Eagles who dominated the game with Salvio slotting home the first goal after ten minutes.
The visitors increased their lead when the Primeira Liga top marksman, Jonas, added a second as he headed home André Almeida’s cross. With Bruno Varela indecisive between the posts, Paulinho grabbed a goal back for Braga seventeen minutes from time with a looping header over the keeper.
Raúl Jiménez extinguished all hope of a fight-back in stoppage time as he volleyed past Matheus at the back-post to secure a 3-1 win.
A few worries lingered ahead of Porto’s trip to Estoril Praia as the Dragons’ attacking force had to deal with the loss of their injured chief playmaker Yacine Brahimi.
The home side took a surprise lead just after the quarter-of-an-hour mark when Eduardo bent a free-kick up and over José Sá from an acute angle. At the other end Renan denied Vincent Aboubakar an equaliser and Diego Reyes went one better to head onto the crossbar on the stroke of half-time.
At the interval, the entire Porto section of the crowd was evacuated onto the pitch over safety concerns relative to the stand’s stability. The second-half of the abandoned game, with Estoril still holding a one goal lead, will be played on 21February at 6pm subject to approval by UEFA as there are Champions League games scheduled for the same date. Portimonense’s winless run extended to six games as they went down 2-0 at Boavista.
The Portimão side were reduced to ten men five minutes before the interval when Lucas Possignolo picked up a straight red.
To round off a disastrous trip to Porto, second-half substitute Felipe collected a yellow card four minutes after the break and a second yellow in stoppage time to leave the visitors with nine men.
Portimonense entertain fourth place SC Braga at the Portimão Municipal Stadium on Saturday at 8.30pm.