The Portuguese First Division offered the familiar – big battle between two well known favourites, strong season for another traditional power, but not strong enough to compete for the title, rather equal bulk of clubs bellow, and two outsiders. Predictable outsiders.
Newly promoted GC Alcobaca was clearly not up to the task – they finished last with 15 points.
Above them with 18 points was Amora FC. Along with Alcobaca, they were prime candidates for relegation before the season started – and down they went, obviously weaker than the rest of the league.
Head-to-head results decided the third unfortunate:
CS Maritimo got the short stick – they had better goal-difference than their opponents, but the rule considered head-to-head results.
SC Espinho survived – with 25 points, like Maritimo, but worse goal-difference, they managed to escape. For now.
Varzim SC – 12th with 26 points. Like Espinho, just temporary lucky.
GD Estoril-Praia -11th, but only thanks to better goal-difference than Varzim, for they also had 26 points. Survival was their whole preoccupation, and likely to be the same the next year.
All things relative – another one of the perennially lowly, Salgueiros ended 10th with 27 points. Still lowly, still one of the prime candidates for relegation – but from their perspective, not a bad season at all: 10th place.
Similar case, Portimonense SC – 9th place with 29 points.
Rio Ave FC – 8th and above Portimonense only thanks to better head-to-head record.
Vitoria Setubal – 7th, but also with 29 points.
Sporting Braga, also with 29 points, ended 6th.
With 30 points, Boavista finished 5th, and topping the bulk of the league. Boavista, Setubal, and Braga were usually solid mid-table clubs and to see them in the same situation as the ‘rabble’ was quite disturbing: it looked like that more clubs were getting worse, instead of better. Among the 12 teams bellow 4th place only one finished with positive goal-difference – Portimonense (35-31). 12 out of 16 teams were largely concerned with avoiding relegation. The pitiful case of Os Belenenses was looming large… who else would be the next club in dire straits?
After all, Vitoria Guimaraes was 4th, but with 32 points it was closer to the relegation zone – just 7 points more than CS Maritimo, than to the bronze medalists, which were 10 points ahead.
There was little hope for positive change at the moment – of course, money was an old problem for most clubs, but more frustrating was the lack of local talent. To assemble competitive team unusual steps had to be taken:
Sporting Lisbon finished 3rd with 42 points. Clearly, much stronger than the rest of the league. Yet, to do that they needed to hastily make their Hungarian goalkeeper Meszaros Portuguese citizen – to open space for their two other foreigners, the Bulgarian midfielder Vanyo Kostov and the Yugoslav Bukovac. It was more than obvious: Portugal had no enough talent for three strong squads. And with such a move Sporting was entirely out of the championship race – yes, they finished 10 points ahead of the 4th plced, but they were also 5 points behind the silver medalists. And the lack of classy players was not going away – in near future the same exercise was repeated and Vanyo Kostov got Portuguese citizenship for the same reason Meszaros got it. Only Communist Bulgaria did not take lightly such move and branded Kostov a traitor – he was eventually able to come back to his motherland after the fall of Communism.
As for the title, it was the usual battle between two – Benfica and FC Porto. Their superiority was enormous and no wonder – all best players were assembled in them.
Still, FC Porto was not deep enough squad and although excellent in attack, outscoring Benfica by 6 goals, they finished 4 points short of a title.
So familiar at the end – Benfica champions once again. It was not routine season, though – Benfica showed great signs of revival, of coming back to their faded by now European leading place. They had strong international season for the first time in something like a decade and as for the home front – they lost only once this season and received 13 goals in 30 games. 22 wins and 7 ties, 67-13 goal-difference, 51 points. Of course, looking at the squad made it clear why they were so strong – practically the whole Portuguese national team was there. Including eccentric Alves, always playing with black gloves. Including incredible midfielder Chalana, just noticed by the world. And two important additions – the Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and Yugoslav winger Zoran Filipovic. If there was hope for Portuguese football, it was this squad.