Porto have won all six. Benfica come to the Dragão next
Six rounds, six wins, two goals conceded. Sporting drew at Famalicão, slipped to third and now trail the leaders by four, with the clássico waiting one week later.
Round six closed on Sunday night and left one very tidy sum behind it. FC Porto have played six and won six: eighteen points from eighteen, fifteen goals scored, two conceded, all of it there in the official Liga Portugal table.
This start has not been built on weekly thrashings. It has been built on never slipping. That is the whole gap to the chasing pair: Benfica have won five and drawn one for sixteen points, while Sporting have now drawn two.
Famalicão 1-1 Sporting
Sporting’s second dropped points were the expensive ones. At Famalicão, Rui Borges’s side spent an hour and a half running into a packed defence, had a goal chalked off for handball in the build-up, and only went ahead on 81 minutes through a Luis Suárez penalty.
Four minutes later Famalicão were down to ten, Roméo Beney sent off with a straight red. It looked settled. Then, on 91, Mathias de Amorim crossed to the far post, Umar Abubakar got above his marker, and the header came back off Gonçalo Inácio and in. Own goal, 1-1, two points gone.
Sporting sit on fourteen, level with Santa Clara and down to third: four off the leaders, two off Benfica. Famalicão climb to 12th and are still waiting on a first win of the season.
What happens next
Round seven settles part of the argument, because Benfica travel to the Dragão. Porto, who on Friday had already put four past Casa Pia in Rio Maior, can go five clear of second before September is out. Sporting host Arouca, who arrive off a home defeat to Santa Clara and have every reason to turn up annoyed.
Some perspective is worth keeping. Six rounds is barely a sixth of a season, and the Dragão has already shown this month that it can be breached — Porto lost at home to Manchester City in the Champions League after holding out for forty-six minutes.
Still, eighteen from eighteen is eighteen from eighteen. For now there is exactly one clean sheet of results in the division.
By Vasco Almada
Chart: Tugadaily, with data from Liga Portugal
