The Portuguese First Division was divided into 4 distinct groups – 1 outsider, 2 teams quite strong, but battling only for the bronze medals, 2 overwhelming leaders competing for the title, and 11 similar teams. Not a new division of Portuguese football, so nothing new this year – only minor changes.
Academica (Coimbra) was the absolute outsider – last with 14 points.
Maritimo (Funchal) ended 15th with 23 points.
Varzim was 14th with 24 points.
Those were relegated -with better luck they would have been safe, but luck was not on their side.
Luck was on the side of
CAF Viseu, 13th with 25 points, and
Amora FC, 12th also with 25 points. For both clubs escaping relegation was considered a strong season.
With 26 points Belenenses finished 11th – the decline settled a few years back and the old glory entirely faded away. Presently, Belenenses only fret over escaping relegation and the future was dark.
Belenenses was declining, but no teams went the other way: none looked like up and coming. Small and temporary movements a bit up or down, but mainly everything was the same as ever.
Vitoria (Guimaraes) topped the bulk of the league – 5th with 31 points. They managed to finish above Braga and Setubal, their usual rivals, but that was all – with higher positions Vitoria had nothing to do at all: they were 5 points behind the 4th placed team.
Above the average league Lisbon and Porto clashed on two levels: the lower one competed for third place: Sporting vs Boavista.
With 36 points Boavista lost the battle, yet finished 5 points ahead of Vitoria (Guimares). Still running high, enjoying good spell.
Standing from left: Eurico, Jordão, Inácio, Freire, Bastos, Vaz.
First row: Fraguito, Ademar, Manuel Fernandes (cap.), Barão, Manoel.
Sporting not as strong as it used to be was good enough only to clinch bronze medals by a point. Jordao and Eurico the stars, as usual.
Much more important battle raged way above Sporting and Boavista: Benfica and FC Porto competed for the title, none the better and only a single match made the difference: Benfica won one match more than FC Porto, which ended with one more loss – 2 points difference
Standing from left: Gabriel, Freitas, Lima Pereira, Simoes, Romeu, Fonseca
Crouching: Sousa, Albertino, Rodolfo, Teixeira, Frasco.
FC Porto still did not have a squad as famous as Benfica’s but was firmly established as the major rival of the great club of Lisbon. Lost the title, but the rest of the league was far, far behind – Sporting had 11 points.
Routine champions, but there was nothing routine this year – this title was won after grueling race to the very end. 22 wins, 6 ties, and only 2 losses earned 50 points. FC Porto finished with 2 less, but Benfica still had one advantage: they were much scorers – 72 goals to FC Porto’s 53. Defensively, both teams were rather the same, yet, Benfica had the edge too – FC Porto allowed 18 goals, Benfica – 15. Note Alves – following his father, he always played with black gloves. Strong looking Benfica, but have it a bit skeptically: with the exception of FC Porto, the Portuguese league was not much of a challenge.