Liga Sagres wrap: Porto streak continues

Porto extended their lead at the top of the Liga Sagres to 11 points with a 4-1 hammering of Maritimo on Saturday.

The hosts never looked in doubt and went into half-time with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Freddy Guarin strike on 37 minutes.

Hulk added another 15 minutes after the restart to notch his 14th goal of the campaign, before Papa Diawara gave the visitors some hope with a goal on 71 minutes to make it 2-1.

However, Guarin soon completed his brace for Porto and James Rodriguez added a fourth in the 81st minute to pile the misery on 10th-placed Martimo.

Porto remain undefeated this season, with 13 wins and two draws from their 15 matches, and lead second-placed Benfica by 11 points.

In Saturday’s other fixture, Sporting Lisbon held off Sporting Braga 2-1 to consolidate third position on the table.

All the goals came before half-time with Diogo Salomao opening the scoring on 11 minutes for Lisbon before Jaime Valdes added another just two minutes later.

Paulo Cesar responded within four minutes for last season’s runners-up, but it wasn’t enough as Braga continue to languish in seventh following their third loss in five games.