2018–19 Taça da Liga

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Taça da Liga 2018–19
Region	Portugal
Dates	21 July 2017 – 26 January 2018
Number of teams	32
Champions	Sporting CP
Runner-up	Porto
Total matches played	43
Total goals scored	122
Top goal scorer	Dyego Sousa Paulinho (4 goals each)
← 2017–18	2019–20 →

The 2018–19 Taça da Liga was the twelfth edition of the Taça da Liga (also known as Allianz Cup for sponsorship reasons), a football cup competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) and contested exclusively by clubs competing in the top two professional tiers of Portuguese football. It began on 21 July 2018 and concluded with the final in Braga on 26 January 2019.

The competition's semi-finals (Benfica v Porto, and Braga v Sporting CP) were marked by controversy involving the video assistant referee (VAR).

In the final, Sporting defeated Porto 3–1 in a penalty shoot-out after a 1–1 draw, becoming the second team (after Benfica) to both defend their title and win the competition multiple times.

Format

The eleven teams placed 4th-16th in the 2017–18 LigaPro (reserve teams from Primeira Liga clubs are excluded) take part in the first round; one-legged ties are played between ten teams, with one team receiving a bye to the next round.

In the second round, the six teams advancing from the previous round (five winners plus the one team with a bye) are joined by the fourteen teams placed 5th–18th in the 2017–18 Primeira Liga, by the two teams promoted to 2018–19 Primeira Liga and the team placed 3rd in the 2017–18 LigaPro. Again, one-legged ties were played between 22 teams, with one team receiving a bye to the next round.

The third round features the twelve teams advancing from the previous round (eleven winners plus the one team with a bye) and the four best-placed teams in the 2017–18 Primeira Liga. The sixteen teams are drawn into four groups that will be contested in a single round-robin format, with each team playing at least one game at home.

The four group winners qualify for the semi-finals, which are played as single-legged ties. The semi-finals and final are played at a neutral venue, set to be in Braga until 2020.

Round	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round
First round (11 teams)	11 teams competing in the 2018–19 LigaPro
Second round (23 teams)	14 teams ranked 5th–18th in the 2017–18 Primeira Liga 1 team ranked 3rd in the 2017–18 LigaPro 2 teams promoted to the 2018–19 Primeira Liga	5 winners from the first round 1 team that received a bye
Third round (16 teams)	4 teams ranked 1st–4th in the 2017–18 Primeira Liga	11 winners from the second round 1 team that received a bye
Semi-finals (4 teams)		4 group winners from the third round
Final (2 teams)		2 winners from the semi-finals

Tiebreakers

In the third round, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are tied on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

1. highest goal difference in all group matches;
2. highest number of scored goals in all group matches;
3. lowest average age of all players fielded in all group matches (sum of the ages of all fielded players divided by the number of fielded players).

In all other rounds, teams tied at the end of regular time contest a penalty shootout to determine the winner.

Teams

Thirty-three teams competing in the two professional tiers of Portuguese football for the 2018–19 season are eligible to participate in this competition. For teams in both leagues, the final position in the previous league season determined in which round they enter the competition.

Third round (Primeira Liga)
Porto (1st)	Benfica (2nd)	Sporting CP (3rd)	Braga (4th)
Second round (Primeira Liga and LigaPro)
Rio Ave (5th)	Chaves (6th)	Marítimo (7th)	Boavista (8th)
Vitória de Guimarães (9th)	Portimonense (10th)	Tondela (11th)	Belenenses (12th)
Desportivo das Aves (13th)	Vitória de Setúbal (14th)	Moreirense (15th)	Feirense (16th)
Nacional (P1)	Santa Clara (P1)	Paços de Ferreira (R1)	Estoril (R1)
Académico de Viseu (3rd)
First round (LigaPro)
Académica (4th)	Penafiel (5th)	Arouca (6th)	Leixões (8th)
Cova da Piedade (9th)	Varzim (10th)	Oliveirense (12th)	Famalicão (14th)
Sporting da Covilhã (15th)	Mafra (P2)	Farense (P2)

Key

• Nth: League position in the 2017–18 season
• P1: Promoted to the Primeira Liga
• P2: Promoted to the LigaPro
• R1: Relegated to the LigaPro

Schedule

Round		Draw date	Match date(s)	Teams	Fixtures
First round		11 July 2018	21–22 July 2018	32 → 27	5
Second round			29 July	27 → 16	11
Third round	Matchday 1	TBD	TBD	16 → 4	24
	Matchday 2		TBD
	Matchday 3		TBD
Final Four	Semi-finals		TBD	4 → 2	2
	Final		TBD	2 → 1	1

First round

The 11 non-reserve teams competing in the 2018–19 LigaPro entered the competition in this round. Ten teams were paired against each other for five single-legged ties, while the eleventh team (Oliveirense) was given a bye to the next round. The draw took place on 11 July 2018, and matches were played on 21 and 22 July 2018. Games tied at the end of regular time were decided by a penalty shootout with no extra-time being played. The first team drawn in each fixture played at home.

21 July 2018	Mafra	2–0	Sporting da Covilhã	Mafra
16:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Jaime  68' (o.g.) Flávio Silva  83'	Report		Stadium: Estádio Municipal de Mafra Attendance: 420 Referee: António Nobre

21 July 2018	Varzim	2–0	Cova da Piedade	Póvoa de Varzim
16:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Teles  5' Awurum  14'	Report		Stadium: Estádio do Varzim SC Attendance: 853 Referee: Claúdio Pereira

21 July 2018	Farense	0–0 (5–4 pen)	Penafiel	Faro
19:45 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report		Stadium: Estádio de São Luís Attendance: 851 Referee: André Narciso
		Penalties
	Pedro Kadri Fábio Gomes Alvarinho Godinho Jorge Ribeiro		Hélio Cruz Vasco Braga Fábio Abreu Yuri Araújo Ludovic

22 July 2018	Famalicão	1–1 (4–5 pen)	Arouca	Vila Nova de Famalicão
16:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Monteiro  36'	Report	82' Malele	Stadium: Estádio Municipal 22 de Junho Attendance: 1,413 Referee: João Malheiro Pinto
		Penalties
	Willian Deni Hočko Fabinho Monteiro Fabrício		Victor Sánchez Costa Malele Toni Fábio

22 July 2018	Académica	0–0 (3–4 pen)	Leixões	Coimbra
19:45 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report		Stadium: Estádio Cidade de Coimbra Attendance: 1,812 Referee: Vítor Ferreira
		Penalties
	Djoussé Nélson Pedroso Zé Paulo Diogo Ribeiro Guima Ricardo Dias		Bura Luís Silva Ricardo Alves Evandro Derick Poloni Bernardo

Second round

In the second round, the five first-round winners and Oliveirense, who was given a bye to this round, joined the 14 teams ranked 5th–18th in the 2017–18 Primeira Liga, the team ranked 3rd and the two teams promoted from the 2017–18 LigaPro. Twenty two teams were paired against each other for eleven single-legged ties, while Vitória de Setúbal was given a bye to the next round. The draw took place on 11 July 2018, and matches were played between 28 July 2018 and 6 August 2018. Games tied at the end of regular time were decided by a penalty shootout with no extra-time being played. The first team drawn in each fixture played at home.

28 July 2018	Desportivo das Aves	2–2 (8–7 pen)	Santa Clara	Vila das Aves
15:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Petrolina  64' Braga  84'	Report	10' (o.g.) Monteiro  27' Santana	Stadium: Estádio do CD Aves Attendance: 1,337 Referee: Iancu Vasilica
		Penalties
	Petrolina Derley Rodrigo Fariña Vítor Gomes Braga Defendi Jorge Fellipe Amilton Elhouni		Santana Pineda Bruno Lamas Stephens Rashid Diogo Santos Kaio Rui Silva Accioly João Lucas

28 July 2018	Marítimo	3–0	Mafra	Funchal
16:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Joel  43', 82' Correa  50'	Report		Stadium: Estádio do Marítimo Attendance: 2,855 Referee: João Pinho

28 July 2018	Belenenses	3–1	Oliveirense	Oeiras
18:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Fredy  52', 90+4' A. Keita  71'	Report	57' Agdon	Stadium: Estádio Nacional Attendance: 1,214 Referee: José Carlos Rodrigues

28 July 2018	Paços de Ferreira	3–2	Académico de Viseu	Paços de Ferreira
18:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Christian  32' Zé Uilton  57' André Leão  85'	Report	45' Pica  76' F. Ferreira	Stadium: Estádio da Mata Real Attendance: 1,021 Referee: Marco Cruz

29 July 2018	Arouca	0–0 (3–5 pen)	Chaves	Arouca
17:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report		Stadium: Estádio Municipal de Arouca Attendance: 760 Referee: João Matos
		Penalties
	Victor Sánchez Costa Kiko Bertaccini		Marcão Bruno Gallo Maraš Eustáquio Ghazaryan

29 July 2018	Farense	0–2	Estoril	Faro
17:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report	19' Roberto  83' Bruno Messi	Stadium: Estádio de São Luís Attendance: 2,062 Referee: Pedro Ramalho

29 July 2018	Feirense	3–2	Leixões	Santa Maria da Feira
17:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Edinho  3', 10' Sturgeon  56'	Report	13' (pen.) Bura  90+5' Breitner	Stadium: Estádio Marcolino de Castro Attendance: 2,371 Referee: Pedro Vilaça

29 July 2018	Varzim	2–0	Moreirense	Póvoa de Varzim
17:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Awurum  23' Ruster  85'	Report		Stadium: Estádio do Varzim SC Attendance: 1,731 Referee: Gustavo Correia

29 July 2018	Nacional	2–1	Boavista	Funchal
19:45 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Witi  9' Róchez  63'	Report	57' Espinho	Stadium: Estádio da Madeira Attendance: 961 Referee: João Bento

5 August 2018	Portimonense	0–2	Rio Ave	Portimão
16:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report	45+3' Gabrielzinho  90+6' Damien Furtado	Stadium: Estádio Municipal de Portimão Attendance: 1,266 Referee: Claúdio Pereira

6 August 2018	Vitória de Guimarães	0–2	Tondela	Guimarães
20:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report	26' Arango  71' Murillo	Stadium: Estádio D. Afonso Henriques Attendance: 15,593 Referee: António Nobre

Third round

In the third round, the 11 second-round winners plus Vitória de Setúbal, who were given a bye to this round, joined the four top-ranked teams from the 2017–18 Primeira Liga: Porto (1st), Benfica (2nd), Sporting CP (3rd) and Braga (4th). These 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four, each group containing one of the four top-ranked Primeira Liga teams who each host their first two group matches. Group matches were played in a single round-robin format, ensuring that each team played at least one match at home.

For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their league position in the previous season, with the teams participating in the 2017–18 Primeira Liga being seeded higher regardless of any relegation. The fixtures and match dates were decided by an additional draw.

Group A

Template:2018–19 Taça da Liga group A

15 September 2018	Paços de Ferreira	0–0	Desportivo das Aves	Paços de Ferreira
15:30 WEST (UTC+01:00)		Report		Stadium: Estádio Capital do Móvel Attendance: 0 Referee: Cláudio Pereira

15 September 2018	Benfica	2–1	Rio Ave	Lisbon
18:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Salvio  21' (pen.) Rafa  50'	Report	60' Vinícius	Stadium: Estádio da Luz Attendance: 30,132 Referee: Rui Oliveira

13 October 2018	Desportivo das Aves	3–0	Rio Ave	Vila das Aves
15:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Derley  36' Braga  78' Ricardo Rodrigues  88'	Report		Stadium: Estádio do CD Aves Attendance: 1,134 Referee: Nuno Almeida

5 December 2018	Benfica	2–0	Paços de Ferreira	Lisbon
20:15 WET (UTC±00:00)	Seferović  12' Félix  45'	Report		Stadium: Estádio da Luz Attendance: 17,194 Referee: António Nobre

28 December 2018	Desportivo das Aves	1–1	Benfica	Vila das Aves
21:15 WET (UTC±00:00)	Baldé  49'	Report	69' Seferović	Stadium: Estádio do CD Aves Attendance: 4,957 Referee: Fábio Veríssimo

28 December 2018	Rio Ave	1–1	Paços de Ferreira	Vila do Conde
21:15 WET (UTC±00:00)	Galeno  51'	Report	30' (o.g.) M. Rodrigues	Stadium: Estádio do Rio Ave Attendance: 1,078 Referee: Nuno Almeida

Group B

Template:2018–19 Taça da Liga group B

15 September 2018	Braga	2–1	Tondela	Braga
20:30 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Dyego Sousa  57' (pen.) Martins  78'	Report	8' Xavier	Stadium: Estádio Municipal de Braga Attendance: 7,704 Referee: João Capela

16 September 2018	Nacional	3–3	Vitória de Setúbal	Funchal
15:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Witi  11', 15' Okacha  34'	Report	40' Mendy  47' Berto  81' Allef	Stadium: Estádio da Madeira Attendance: 605 Referee: Tiago Martins

30 October 2018	Braga	5–0	Nacional	Braga
20:15 WET (UTC±00:00)	Dyego Sousa  5, 41' Sequeira  21' Paulinho  43, 46'	Report		Stadium: Estádio Municipal de Braga Attendance: 5,753 Referee: António Nobre

18 November 2018	Vitória de Setúbal	1–2	Tondela	Setúbal
11:45 WET (UTC±00:00)	Zequinha  90' (pen.)	Report	45+1' Jaquité  61' Ricardo Alves	Stadium: Estádio do Bonfim Attendance: 1,719 Referee: Rui Costa

28 December 2018	Tondela	2–1	Nacional	Tondela
19:00 WET (UTC±00:00)	Ícaro  3' Arango  85'	Report	20' Arabidze	Stadium: Estádio João Cardoso Attendance: 1,088 Referee: Manuel Mota

28 December 2018	Vitória de Setúbal	0–4	Braga	Setúbal
19:00 WET (UTC±00:00)		Report	53', 59' Paulinho  75' Wilson Eduardo  88' Pablo	Stadium: Estádio do Bonfim Attendance: 1,474 Referee: António Nobre

Group C

Template:2018–19 Taça da Liga group C

14 September 2018	Porto	1–1	Chaves	Porto
20:30 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Hernâni  75'	Report	83' Eustáquio	Stadium: Estádio do Dragão Attendance: 37,708 Referee: Vítor Ferreira

16 September 2018	Varzim	2–1	Belenenses	Póvoa de Varzim
17:30 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Jonathan  69' Estrela  90'	Report	30' Lucca	Stadium: Estádio do Varzim Attendance: 1,387 Referee: João Malheiro Pinto

31 October 2018	Porto	4–2	Varzim	Porto
19:00 WET (UTC±00:00)	Bazoer  42' Soares  73' Stephen Payne  73' (o.g.) A. Pereira  86'	Report	30' Jonathan  75' Haman	Stadium: Estádio do Dragão Attendance: 17,824 Referee: João Capela

18 November 2018	Belenenses	0–1	Chaves	Oeiras
15:00 WET (UTC±00:00)		Report	49' Niltinho	Stadium: Estádio Nacional Attendance: 360 Referee: Manuel Oliveira

30 December 2018	Belenenses	1–2	Porto	Oeiras
17:00 WET (UTC±00:00)	Reinaldo  6'	Report	53' Marega  63' Soares	Stadium: Estádio Nacional Attendance: 6,319 Referee: Manuel Oliveira

30 December 2018	Chaves	3–1	Varzim	Chaves
17:00 WET (UTC±00:00)	Niltinho  34' William  70' Marcão  76'	Report	37' Ruster	Stadium: Estádio Municipal de Chaves Attendance: 2,780 Referee: João Pinheiro

Group D

Template:2018–19 Taça da Liga group D

16 September 2018	Sporting CP	3–1	Marítimo	Lisbon
20:00 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Raphinha  26' B. Fernandes  54' (pen.), 63'	Report	61' Correa	Stadium: Estádio José Alvalade Attendance: 29,573 Referee: Manuel Mota

17 September 2018	Estoril	1–2	Feirense	Estoril
20:15 WEST (UTC+01:00)	Kléber  10' (pen.)	Report	22' P. Sampaio  45' Briseño	Stadium: Estádio António Coimbra da Mota Attendance: 817 Referee: André Narciso

31 October 2018	Feirense	3–2	Marítimo	Santa Maria da Feira
16:00 WET (UTC±00:00)	Aloisio  30' (o.g.) João Silva  36', 73'	Report	15' Aloisio  57' Ricardo Valente	Stadium: Estádio Marcolino de Castro Attendance: 919 Referee: Vítor Ferreira

31 October 2018	Sporting CP	1–2	Estoril	Lisbon
21:15 WET (UTC±00:00)	Wendel  9'	Report	71' Lima  82' (o.g.) A. Pinto	Stadium: Estádio José Alvalade Attendance: 10,852 Referee: Hélder Malheiro

29 December 2018	Feirense	1–4	Sporting CP	Santa Maria da Feira
19:45 WET (UTC±00:00)	24' (pen.) T. Silva	Report	5' Raphinha  22' B.Fernandes  60' (pen.) Dost  67' (o.g.) Machado	Stadium: Estádio Marcolino de Castro Attendance: Rui Costa Referee: 5,440

29 December 2018	Marítimo	0–1	Estoril	Funchal
19:45 WET (UTC±00:00)		Report	16' (pen.) Lima	Stadium: Estádio do Marítimo Attendance: 2,098 Referee: Claúdio Pereira

Knockout phase

The knockout phase was contested as a final-four tournament by the four third-round group winners in one-legged semi-finals and final. All matches were played in a neutral venue, decided before the competition starts. As in the first and second round, games tied at the end of regular time were decided by a penalty shootout with no extra-time being played.

The first semi-final was played between the winners of Groups A (Benfica) and C (Porto), while the second was played between Group B (Braga) and D (Sporting CP) winners. Groups A and B winners (Benfica and Braga, respectively) were designated as the "home" teams (for administrative purposes) in their semi-final clashes as was the winner of the first semi-final in the final. If the team that played at home in the appointed neutral stadium was still in competition, in this case Braga, they were designated the home team regardless in which group or semi-final they played.

All matches were played at Estádio Municipal de Braga, in Braga, with the semi-finals played on 22 and 23 January, and the final on 26 January 2019.

	Semi-finals				Final
	22 January – Estádio Municipal de Braga
	Benfica	1
	Porto	3
					26 January – Estádio Municipal de Braga
					Porto	1 (1)
					Sporting CP	1 (3)
	23 January – Estádio Municipal de Braga
	Braga	1 (3)
	Sporting CP (p)	1 (4)

Semi-finals

22 January 2019 19:45 WET (UTC±00:00)	Benfica	1–3	Porto	Estádio Municipal de Braga, Braga Attendance: 22,945 Referee: Carlos Xistra
	Rafa  31'	Report	24' Brahimi  35' Marega  86' Fernando

---

23 January 2019 19:45 WET (UTC±00:00)	Braga	1–1	Sporting CP	Estádio Municipal de Braga, Braga Attendance: 10,087 Referee: Manuel Oliveira
	Dyego Sousa  3'	Report	37' Coates
		Penalties
	R. Horta Paulinho Murilo Goiano Dyego Sousa Claudemir Ryller	3–4	Dost Coates B. Fernandes Nani Raphinha Ristovski Jefferson

Final

Main article: 2019 Taça da Liga Final

26 January 2019 19:45 WET (UTC±00:00)	Porto	1–1	Sporting CP	Estádio Municipal de Braga, Braga Attendance: 25,213 Referee: João Pinheiro
	Fernando  79'	Report	90+2' (pen.) Dost
		Penalties
	Telles Militão Hernâni Felipe	1–3	Dost Coates B. Fernandes Nani

External links

• LPFP page (Portuguese)

Template:Taça da Liga seasons

2018–19 in Portuguese football
Domestic leagues
Primeira Liga (level 1) · LigaPro (level 2) · Campeonato de Portugal (level 3)
Domestic cups
Taça de Portugal (Final) · Taça da Liga (Final) · Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira
European competitions
Champions League (Final) · Europa League (Final)
2017–18                                                        2019–20