2019 Taça da Liga final

The 2019 Taça da Liga Final was the final match of the 2018–19 Taça da Liga, the twelfth season of the Taça da Liga. It was played on 26 January 2019 at Estádio Municipal de Braga.

2019 Taça da Liga Final
Event2018–19 Taça da Liga
Sporting CP won 3–1 on penalties
Date26 January 2019
VenueEstádio Municipal de Braga, Braga
RefereeJoão Pinheiro
Attendance25,213
2018
2020

The competition involved the 32 clubs playing in the top two tiers of the Portuguese football league system – 18 from Primeira Liga and 14 from LigaPro – during the 2018–19 season. Reserve sides of Primeira Liga teams that played in the 2018–19 LigaPro were excluded from the competition.

Porto and Sporting CP faced off in the first final involving both teams. After a 1–1 tie, Sporting CP won the final 3–1 after a penalty shootout, thus becoming only the second team (after Benfica) in the competition's history to both defend their title and win multiple Taças da Liga.

Background

For the third consecutive season, this competition featured a final four format with both the semi-finals and the final being played over a space of a few days in the same venue. The Estádio Municipal de Braga hosted all matches. Porto had the chance to win their first Taça da Liga while Sporting CP could be the first team, other than Benfica, to both win the competition multiple times as well as successfully defend the title, having won the previous final.

Route to the final

Being among the top four during the 2017–18 Primeira Liga season, Porto and Sporting CP received byes directly to the third round. Only the top team in each of the four groups advanced to the final four and both teams marginally won their groups. Porto shared the top spot in group C with Chaves both in points and goal difference, the two most important tiebreakers, having only won the group by virtue of more overall goals scored. Meanwhile, Sporting CP had the same number of points in group D as both Estoril and Feirense, having had the best goal difference from the three teams. Porto played in the first semi-final against Benfica winning the match 3–1. The following day Sporting CP drew 1–1 against Braga, the host team, during the 90 minutes in the second semi-final, winning 4–3 on penalties after a series of seven penalty rounds.

Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away; N: neutral).

PortoRoundSporting CP
OpponentResultStadiumFirst roundOpponentResultStadium
ByeBye
OpponentResultStadiumSecond roundOpponentResultStadium
ByeBye
OpponentResultStadiumThird roundOpponentResultStadium
Chaves1–1 (H)Estádio do DragãoMatchday 1Marítimo3–1 (H)Estádio José Alvalade
Varzim4–2 (H)Estádio do DragãoMatchday 2Estoril1–2 (H)Estádio José Alvalade
Belenenses2–1 (A)Estádio NacionalMatchday 3Feirense4–1 (A)Estádio Marcolino de Castro
Group C winners
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Porto321074+37
Chaves321052+37
Varzim310258−33
Belenenses300325−30
Final standingsGroup D winners
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Sporting CP320184+46
Estoril320143+16
Feirense320167–16
Marítimo300337−40
OpponentResultStadiumKnockout phaseOpponentResultStadium
Benfica3–1 (N)Estádio Municipal de BragaSemi-finalsBraga1–1 (4–3p) (A)Estádio Municipal de Braga

Match

Summary

Details

Porto1–1Sporting CP
  • Fernando 79'
Report
Penalties
1–3
Porto
Sporting CP
GK26 Vaná
RB3 Éder Militão
CB28 Felipe  45'
CB33 Pepe
LB13 Alex Telles
RM17 Jesús Corona  25'  82'
CM16 Héctor Herrera (c)
CM10 Óliver Torres  68'  90+4'
LM8 Yacine Brahimi
CF11 Moussa Marega  90+3'
CF21 André Pereira  64'
Substitutes:
GK1 Iker Casillas
DF12 Wilson Manafá
DF19 Chancel Mbemba
MF6 Bruno Costa
MF22 Danilo Pereira  82'
FW7 Hernâni  90+4'
FW37 Fernando  64'
Manager:
Sérgio Conceição
GK40 Renan Ribeiro  90+6'
RB13 Stefan Ristovski  66'
CB6 André Pinto  29'  53'
CB4 Sebastián Coates
LB9 Marcos Acuña  35'  45'
RM21 Raphinha
CM86 Nemanja Gudelj  83'
CM37 Wendel
LM8 Bruno Fernandes  90+5'
CF17 Nani (c)  45'
CF28 Bas Dost
Substitutes:
GK19 Romain Salin
DF5 Jefferson  45'
MF25 Radosav Petrović  86'  53'
MF90 Miguel Luís
FW23 Abdoulay Diaby  83'
FW29 Luiz Phellype
FW77 Jovane Cabral
Manager:
Marcel Keizer

Man of the match

Assistant referees:
Nuno Eiras
Paulo Vieira
Fourth official:
Manuel Mota
Video assistant referee:
Tiago Martins
Assistant video assistant referee:
Pedro Mota

Match rules

  • 90 minutes.
  • Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
  • Seven named substitutes.
  • Maximum of three substitutions.

References