2021–22 Primeira Liga Explained

Season:	2021–22
Dates:	6 August 2021 – 15 May 2022
Competition:	Liga Portugal
Relegated:	B SAD Tondela Moreirense
Continentalcup1:	Champions League
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:	Porto Sporting CP Benfica
Continentalcup2:	Europa League
Continentalcup2 Qualifiers:	Braga
Continentalcup3:	Europa Conference League
Continentalcup3 Qualifiers:	Gil Vicente Vitória de Guimarães
Matches:	306
Total Goals:	807
League Topscorer:	Darwin Núñez (26 goals)
Biggest Home Win:	(16 April 2022)
Biggest Away Win:	(27 November 2021)
Highest Scoring:	(19 December 2021)
Longest Wins:	16 matches Porto^[1]
Longest Unbeaten:	30 matches Porto
Longest Winless:	16 matches Vizela
Longest Losses:	6 matches B SAD
Highest Attendance:	48,790 (30 December 2021)
Lowest Attendance:	439 Tondela 3–2 Famalicão (25 September 2021)
Attendance:	2,364,659
Average Attendance:	7,482
Prevseason:	2020–21
Nextseason:	2022–23
Winners:	Porto 30th title

The 2021–22 Liga Portugal (also known as Liga Portugal Bwin^[2] for sponsorship reasons) was the 88th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs, and the first season under the current Liga Portugal title. This was the fifth Primeira Liga season to use video assistant referee (VAR). The start and end dates for the season were released on 21 May 2021,^[3] and the fixtures were released on 8 July 2021.^[4]

Sporting CP were the defending champions, having won their nineteenth Primeira Liga and their first title since the 2001–02 season at the previous season. Estoril, Vizela and Arouca joined as the promoted clubs from the 2020–21 Liga Portugal 2. They replaced Farense, Nacional and Rio Ave, which were relegated to Liga Portugal 2 the previous season.

This season saw the return of full capacity crowds, after the final third of the 2019–20 and the entirety of the 2020–21 seasons were held with limited or no attendance due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal.^[5]

Porto secured their 30th league title with one match remaining, following a 1–0 away victory over rivals Benfica on 7 May 2022.^[6]

Teams

Eighteen teams compete in the league – the top fifteen teams from the previous season and three teams promoted from the LigaPro: Estoril,^[7] Vizela^[8] and Arouca.^[9]

Changes

Estoril (promoted after a three-year absence) and Vizela (promoted after a 36-year absence) were promoted from the 2020–21 Liga Portugal 2 (finishing 1st and 2nd places), replacing Farense and Nacional (both relegated after only one year in the top flight).

Arouca (promoted after a four-year absence) was promoted after finishing in 3rd place in 2020–21 Liga Portugal 2 and winning the Promotion play-offs against Rio Ave (relegated after thirteen years in the top flight).

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity^[10]	data-sort-type="number"	2020–21
Arouca	Arouca	Estádio Municipal de Arouca	5,000	3rd (LP)
Belenenses SAD	Oeiras	Estádio Nacional	37,593	10th
Benfica	Lisbon	Estádio da Luz	64,642	3rd
Boavista	Porto	Estádio do Bessa	28,263	13th
Braga	Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,286	4th
Estoril	Estoril	Estádio António Coimbra da Mota	8,015	1st (LP)
Famalicão	Vila Nova de Famalicão	Estádio Municipal 22 de Junho	5,307	9th
Gil Vicente	Barcelos	Estádio Cidade de Barcelos	12,504	11th
Marítimo	Funchal	Estádio do Marítimo	10,932	15th
Moreirense	Moreira de Cónegos	Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas	6,153	8th
Paços de Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	Estádio Capital do Móvel	9,076	5th
Portimonense	Portimão	Estádio Municipal de Portimão	6,204	14th
Porto	Porto	Estádio do Dragão	50,033	2nd
Santa Clara	Ponta Delgada	Estádio de São Miguel	13,277	6th
Sporting CP	Lisbon	Estádio José Alvalade	50,095	1st
Tondela	Tondela	Estádio João Cardoso	5,000	12th
Vitória de Guimarães	Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,000	7th
Vizela	Vizela	Estádio do FC Vizela	6,000	2nd (LP)

Personnel and sponsors

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit Manufacturer	Main Sponsor
Arouca	Armando Evangelista	Thales Oleques	Skita	Construções Carlos Pinho
Belenenses SAD	Franclim Carvalho	Afonso Taira	Kelme	Betway
Benfica	Nélson Veríssimo	André Almeida	Adidas	Emirates
Boavista	Petit	Rafael Bracali		Placard
Braga	Carlos Carvalhal	Ricardo Horta	Hummel	Betano
Estoril	Bruno Pinheiro	Joãozinho	Kappa	Solverde
Famalicão	Rui Pedro Silva	Gustavo Assunção	Macron	Placard
Gil Vicente	Ricardo Soares	Rúben Fernandes	Lacatoni	Barcelos Tourism
Marítimo	Vasco Seabra	Edgar Costa	Nike	Betano
Moreirense	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Lazar Rosić	CDT	Placard
Paços de Ferreira	César Peixoto	Marco Baixinho	Joma	Solverde
Portimonense	Paulo Sérgio	Pedro Sá	Mizuno	McDonald's
Porto	Sérgio Conceição	Pepe		MEO
Santa Clara	Mário Silva	Anderson Carvalho		Solverde
Sporting CP	Rúben Amorim	Sebastián Coates	Nike	Betano
Tondela	Nuno Campos	João Pedro	CDT	Cabriz
Vitória de Guimarães	Pepa	André André	Macron	Placard
Vizela	Álvaro Pacheco	Marcos Paulo	Lacatoni	Vizela Tourism

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager		Date of vacancy	Pos in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Pacos de Ferreira	Pepa	Signed by Vitória de Guimarães	1 July 2021	Pre-season	Jorge Simão	1 July 2021	^[11]
Vitória de Guimarães	Moreno (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell	1 July 2021	Pepa	1 July 2021	^[12]
Boavista	Jesualdo Ferreira	Mutual consent	1 July 2021	João Pedro Sousa	1 July 2021	^[13] ^[14]
Santa Clara	Daniel Ramos	7 October 2021	15th	Nuno Campos	12 October 2021	^[15] ^[16]
Belenenses SAD	Petit	19 October 2021	17th	Filipe Cândido	19 October 2021	^[17]
Marítimo	Julio Velázquez	Sacked	11 November 2021	17th	Vasco Seabra	14 November 2021	^[18] ^[19]
Boavista	João Pedro Sousa	Mutual consent	30 November 2021	11th	Petit	30 November 2021	^[20]
Moreirense	João Henriques	30 November 2021	16th	Lito Vidigal	4 December 2021	^[21] ^[22]
Pacos de Ferreira	Jorge Simão	Sacked	11 December 2021	13th	César Peixoto	16 December 2021	^[23] ^[24]
Santa Clara	Nuno Campos	13 December 2021	14th	Tiago Sousa (caretaker)	13 December 2021	^[25]
Famalicão	Ivo Vieira	19 December 2021	16th	Rui Pedro Silva	19 December 2021	^[26]
Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Mutual consent	27 December 2021	3rd	Nélson Veríssimo (caretaker)	27 December 2021	^[27]
Moreirense	Lito Vidigal	Sacked	5 January 2022	16th	Ricardo Sá Pinto	7 January 2022	^[28] ^[29]
Santa Clara	Tiago Sousa	End of caretaker spell	10 January 2022	14th	Mário Silva	10 January 2022	^[30]
Belenenses SAD	Filipe Cândido	Resigned	11 January 2022	18th	Franclim Carvalho	11 January 2022	^[31]
Tondela	Pako Ayestarán	Sacked	16 March 2022	16th	Nuno Campos	16 March 2022	^[32] ^[33]

Relegation play-offs

The relegation play-offs took place on 21 and 29 May 2022 between Moreirense who finished 16th in the Primeira Liga and Chaves who finished 3rd in Liga Portugal 2.

All times are WEST (UTC+1).

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Chaves won 2–1 on aggregate and were promoted to 2022–23 Primeira Liga; Moreirense were relegated to 2022–23 Liga Portugal 2.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1		Benfica	26
2		Porto	20
3		Braga	19
4	Fran Navarro	Gil Vicente	16
5		Sporting	15
	Óscar Estupiñán	Vitória de Guimarães
7	Luis Díaz	Porto	14
	Evanilson	Porto
	Simon Banza	Famalicão
10		Gil Vicente	12

Hat-tricks

See main article: List of Primeira Liga hat-tricks.

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Mehdi Taremi	Porto	Tondela	3–1 (A)	23 October 2021
João Pedro	Tondela	Marítimo	4–2 (H)	7 November 2021
	Benfica	B SAD	7–0 (A)	27 November 2021
	Benfica	Famalicão	4–1 (A)	13 December 2021
Paulinho	Sporting	Portimonense	3–2 (H)	29 December 2021
Vitinha	Braga	Arouca	6–0 (A)	30 December 2021
Evanilson	Porto	B SAD	4–1 (A)	16 January 2022
	Benfica	B SAD	3–1 (H)	9 April 2022
	Marítimo	Boavista	4–0 (H)	16 April 2022
Mehdi Taremi	Porto	Portimonense	7–0 (H)	16 April 2022

Notes(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Antonio Adán	Sporting CP	17
2	Diogo Costa	Porto	15
	Matheus	Braga
4	André Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	10
	Odysseas Vlachodimos	Benfica
		Estoril
	Samuel Portugal	Portimonense
8		Marítimo	9
		Santa Clara
10		Famalicão	8
	Luiz Felipe	B SAD

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 13
  • Lucas Possignolo (Portimonense)
• Most red cards: 3
  • Alfa Semedo (Vitória de Guimarães)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 118
  • Vitória de Guimarães
• Most red cards: 11
  • Belenenses SAD

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		Goalkeeper of the Month		Defender of the Month		Midfielder of the Month		Forward of the Month		Manager of the Month		Goal of the Month
	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Player	Club	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Lucas Veríssimo	Benfica	Antonio Adán	Sporting CP	Lucas Veríssimo	Benfica	Pedro Gonçalves	Sporting CP	Toni Martínez	Porto	Bruno Pinheiro	Estoril	Álex Grimaldo	Benfica
September			Diogo Costa	Porto	Pedro Porro	Sporting CP	João Mário	Benfica		Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Benfica		Boavista
October/November	Luis Díaz	Porto	Antonio Adán	Sporting CP	Sebastián Coates		Matheus Nunes	Sporting CP	Luis Díaz	Porto	Rúben Amorim	Sporting CP	Luis Díaz	Porto
December	Vitinha		Diogo Costa	Porto	Gonçalo Inácio		Vitinha	Porto			Sérgio Conceição	Porto	Arsénio	Arouca
January					Chancel Mbemba	Porto			Evanilson		Ricardo Soares	Gil Vicente	Evanilson	Porto
February	Pedrinho	Gil Vicente			Matheus Reis	Sporting	Pedrinho	Gil Vicente	Ricardo Horta	Braga			Ricardo Horta	Braga
March	Vitinha	Porto					Vitinha	Porto	Islam Slimani	Sporting	Sérgio Conceição	Porto	Rafa Silva	Benfica
April	Ricardo Horta	Braga	Matheus	Braga	David Carmo	Braga	Fábio Vieira	Porto	Ricardo Horta	Braga	Carlos Carvalhal	Braga	André Silva	Arouca

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Darwin Núñez^[34]	Benfica
Manager of the Season	Sérgio Conceição^[35]	Porto
Goal of the Season	André Silva^[36]	Arouca
Young Player of the Season	Vitinha^[37]	Porto
Top scorer	Darwin Núñez^[38]	Benfica
Neno Club Fair-Play Prize	Benfica

Team of the Year^[39]

Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Diogo Costa (Porto)
Defence	Pedro Porro (Sporting CP)	Pepe (Porto)		Chancel Mbemba (Porto)	Matheus Reis (Sporting CP)
Midfield	Ricardo Horta (Braga)		Matheus Nunes (Sporting CP)	Otávio (Porto)		Vitinha (Porto)	Darwin Núñez (Benfica)
Attack	Mehdi Taremi (Porto)

Number of teams by district

Rank	District Football Associations	Number	Teams
1	Braga	6	Braga, Famalicão, Gil Vicente, Moreirense, Vitória de Guimarães and Vizela
2	Lisbon	4	Belenenses SAD, Benfica, Estoril and Sporting CP
3	Porto	3	Boavista, Paços de Ferreira and Porto
4	Aveiro	1	Arouca
	Faro		Portimonense
	Funchal		Marítimo
	Ponta Delgada		Santa Clara
			Tondela

Notes and References

1. Web site: Portuguese Liga Performance Stats - 2021-22. ESPN. 31 October 2021.
2. Web site: 16 April 2021. Liga Portugal and Bwin establish a partnership agreement for the next 5 seasons. en. Liga Portugal. 20 May 2021.
3. News: Conheça o calendário da 25.ª à 33.ª jornada da Liga. 22 May 2021. Jornal de Noticías. 31 October 2021.
4. Web site: Kick-Off 2021/22: os premiados, as declarações e o sorteio dos calendários. O Jogo. 2021-07-08.
5. Web site: Adeptos regressam aos estádios. Liga Portugal garante segurança. Rádio e Televisão de. Portugal. Adeptos regressam aos estádios. Liga Portugal garante segurança.
6. Web site: FC Porto sagra-se campeão nacional (Liga). A Bola. Portuguese. 11 July 2024.
7. Web site: 9 May 2021. Estoril Praia are the new Champions of the Liga Portugal SABSEG. en. Liga Portugal. 6 May 2020.
8. Web site: 22 May 2021. FC Vizela win and get promoted to the Liga NOS. en. Liga Portugal. 23 May 2020.
9. Web site: 22 May 2021. FC Arouca promoted to Liga NOS. en. Liga Portugal. 23 May 2020.
10. Web site: Liga NOS stats. LPFP. 14 June 2020.
11. News: Oficial: Jorge Simão é o treinador do Paços de Ferreira para a próxima época. Official: Jorge Simão is the manager of Paços de Ferreira for the next season. TVI24. pt. 13 May 2021. 31 May 2021.
12. News: Oficial: Pepa é o treinador do Vitória de Guimarães. Official: Pepa is the manager of Vitória de Guimarães. Maisfutebol. pt. 21 May 2021. 31 May 2021.
13. News: Oficial: Jesualdo Ferreira deixa o Boavista. Official: Jesualdo Ferreira leaves Boavista . 28 June 2021 . Mais Futebol . 27 June 2021 . Portuguese.
14. News: Oficial: João Pedro Sousa é o novo treinador do Boavista. Official: João Pedro Sousa is the new manager of Boavista . 28 June 2021 . Mais Futebol . 28 June 2021 . Portuguese.
15. News: Daniel Ramos oficializado no Al Faisaly. Daniel Ramos confirmed at Al Faisaly. Record. pt. 7 October 2021. 8 October 2021.
16. Web site: Santa Clara apresenta Nuno Campos: "Época passada não é o normal".
17. News: Ferreira . Nuno Miguel . Paulo . Joaquim . Filipe Cândido eleito para render Petit: técnico vai assinar por época e meia. Filipe Cândido chosen to relieve Petit: manager will sign for a season and a half . 22 October 2021 . Record . 20 October 2021 . Portuguese.
18. News: Marítimo rescinde com treinador Julio Velázquez. Marítimo rescind with manager Julio Velázquez. Jornal de Notícias. pt. 11 November 2021. 12 November 2021.
19. Web site: OFICIAL: Vasco Seabra é o novo treinador do Marítimo.
20. Web site: Oficial: Boavista anuncia saída de João Pedro Sousa e entrada de Petit.
21. Web site: Moreirense: Lito Vidigal sucede a João Henriques.
22. Web site: A BOLA. A Bola.
23. Web site: Oficial: Jorge Simão deixa comando técnico do Paços de Ferreira.
24. News: César Peixoto é o novo treinador do Paços de Ferreira. César Peixoto is the new manager of Paços de Ferreira. Público. pt. 16 December 2021. 16 December 2021.
25. Web site: Santa Clara despede Nuno Campos e já há duas hipóteses para o cargo.
26. Web site: Chicotadas na Liga: Ivo Vieira é o oitavo treinador a sair. Sackings in the League: Ivo Vieira is the eighth manager to leave. Mais Futebol. pt. 19 December 2021. 19 December 2021.
27. Web site: A BOLA.
28. Web site: Lito Vidigal deixa o Moreirense um mês depois da chegada. Lito Vidigal leaves Moreirense one month after arriving. SAPO. pt. 5 January 2022. 5 January 2022.
29. Web site: Ricardo Sá Pinto rende Lito Vidigal no comando técnico do Moreirense. Ricardo Sá Pinto takes over from Lito Vidigal at the helm of Moreirense. SAPO. pt. 7 January 2022. 7 January 2022.
30. Web site: OFICIAL: AÇORIANOS TÊM NOVO TREINADOR.
31. Web site: FILIPE CÂNDIDO SAI E ESTÁ ENCONTRADA SOLUÇÃO IMEDIATA. 15 January 2022. 15 January 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220115214453/https://www.abola.pt/amp/noticias/ver/921959. dead.
32. Web site: OFICIAL: CONFIRMADA A SAÍDA DE PAKO AYESTARÁN.
33. Web site: Nuno Campos é o novo treinador do Tondela.
34. Web site: 5 July 2022 . Darwin Nuñez eleito melhor jogador da época no campeonato . 9 August 2023 . Rádio Renascença . pt.
35. News: Esteves Teixeira . Sofia . 5 July 2022 . Sérgio Conceição eleito melhor treinador do ano . pt . Sérgio Conceição voted manager of the year . Jornal de Notícias . 10 August 2023.
36. Web site: 5 July 2023 . Liga Portugal bwin's Goal of the Year: André Silva (FC Arouca) . 10 August 2023 . Liga Portugal.
37. Web site: 5 July 2023 . Vitinha voted Liga Portugal bwin's Young Player of the Year . 10 August 2023 . Liga Portugal.
38. News: 15 May 2022 . Darwin Núñez é o melhor marcador da Liga, Taremi em segundo . pt . Darwin Núñez is the Liga top scorer, Taremi in second . Maisfutebol . 10 August 2023.
39. Web site: Liga Nos Team of the season. 29 June 2022. A Bola.

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