2018–19 Primeira Liga
The 2018–19 Primeira Liga was the 85th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. Porto were the defending champions but finished behind Benfica, who became champions for a record 37th time while equalling their own scoring record of 103 goals in the 1963–64 season.
Incidents
The weeks leading up to the beginning of the competition were filled with several incidents:- Contrary to previous seasons, three teams will be relegated. This is due to the fact that Gil Vicente was granted a place in the 2019–20 Primeira Liga season by court decision. Gil Vicente argued against this solution since the club claimed for an immediate integration in the first tier.
- Académico de Viseu, which had finished third in 2017–18 LigaPro, claimed that runners-up Santa Clara should be punished for irregularities occurred in several games of the season. This would prevent Santa Clara to be promoted to the 2018–2019 Primeira Liga, hence Académico de Viseu would take its place.
- Following the incidents in Sporting CP's training centre, during which players and staff were attacked by the club's ultras, nine players unilaterally revoked their contracts. Ultimately, after the president's impeachment, the club was able to convince some of those players to return. Nevertheless, the new administration always admitted that the club would start the season in an early preparation phase.
- On 30 June, following disputes over the administration of the football section, Belenenses broke the relationship with the publicly traded company who owned the football section. Nevertheless, Codecity Sports Management, the owners of Belenenses's football Inc., decided to keep business and placed an entering in Primeira Liga under the name "Belenenses SAD", using Estádio Nacional as home stadium. In October, the intellectual property court issued an obligation for the team owned by Codecity Sports Management to rebrand, dismissing every trademark connection with Clube de Futebol "Os Belenenses" but the society did not follow and appealed the decision. The original club made a fresh start, entering a team in the bottom division of Lisbon FA, keeping the support of a vast majority of the fans.
Teams
Stadia and locations
Team | Location | Stadium | Capacity | 2017–18 finish |
Belenenses SAD | Oeiras | Estádio Nacional | 37,500 | 12th |
Benfica | Lisbon | Estádio da Luz | 65,200 | 2nd |
Boavista | Porto | Estádio do Bessa | 28,263 | 8th |
Braga | Braga | Estádio Municipal de Braga | 30,000 | 4th |
Chaves | Chaves | Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira | 8,400 | 6th |
Desportivo das Aves | Aves | Estádio do CD Aves | 5,441 | 13th |
Feirense | Santa Maria da Feira | Estádio Marcolino de Castro | 5,600 | 16th |
Marítimo | Funchal | Estádio do Marítimo | 10,600 | 7th |
Moreirense | Moreira de Cónegos | Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas | 6,150 | 15th |
Nacional | Funchal | Estádio da Madeira | 5,200 | 1st |
Portimonense | Portimão | Estádio Municipal de Portimão | 5,870 | 10th |
Porto | Porto | Estádio do Dragão | 50,033 | 1st |
Rio Ave | Vila do Conde | Estádio dos Arcos | 9,065 | 5th |
Santa Clara | Ponta Delgada | Estádio de São Miguel | 10,000 | 2nd |
Sporting CP | Lisbon | Estádio José Alvalade | 50,095 | 3rd |
Tondela | Tondela | Estádio João Cardoso | 5,000 | 11th |
Vitória de Guimarães | Guimarães | Estádio D. Afonso Henriques | 30,000 | 9th |
Vitória de Setúbal | Setúbal | Estádio do Bonfim | 15,497 | 14th |
Personnel and sponsors
Managerial changes
Season summary
League table
Positions by round
Results
Statistics
Top goalscorers
- A former Portuguese international player at youth levels, Eduardo switched allegiances to play for Angola during the season.
Top assists
Hat-tricks
Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
Pizzi | Benfica | Vitória de Guimarães | 3–2 | 10 August 2018 |
Vítor Gomes | Aves | Portimonense | 3–0 | 1 October 2018 |
Hildeberto Pereira | Vitória de Setúbal | Moreirense | 3–0 | 6 October 2018 |
Dyego Sousa | Braga | Feirense | 4–0 | 14 December 2018 |
Francisco Soares | Porto | Chaves | 1–4 | 18 January 2019 |
Sardor Rashidov | Nacional | Feirense | 4–0 | 16 February 2019 |
William Alves de Oliveira | Chaves | Nacional | 4–1 | 28 April 2019 |
Bruno Fernandes | Sporting CP | Belenenses SAD | 1–8 | 5 May 2019 |
Guilherme Schettine | Santa Clara | Feirense | 4–4 | 11 May 2019 |