Soccer Football - Primeira Liga - Sporting CP v Vitoria S.C. - Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal - May 17, 2025 Sporting CP's Zeno Debast in action with Vitoria S.C's Nelson Oliveira REUTERS/Rodrigo Antunes
LISBON (Reuters) -Sporting were crowned Portugal champions after beating Vitoria Guimaraes 2-0 in Primeira Liga on Saturday as both the title race and the relegations were decided on the final match day.
Pedro Goncalves put the defending champions in front after 55 minutes before Viktor Gyokeres doubled the advantage late on, sealing the points with a low strike inside the bottom right corner.
Sporting finished top of the standings on 82 points, two points above local rivals Benfica who were held to a 1-1 draw at 10-man Sporting Braga in a simultaneous kickoff.
Sporting and Benfica played out a 1-1 draw last weekend to stay level on points but Sporting's 1-0 win in the reverse fixture in December meant they held a head-to-head advantage, and only needed to match Benfica's result on final day.
Sporting, who became champions for the 21st time, won first consecutive league titles since they claimed four in a row from 1951-54.
Sporting were the better side in the opening half but failed to make it count as Vitoria goalkeeper Bruno Varela thwarted good efforts by Gyokeres and Francisco Trincao.
Goncalves gave Sporting the lead after the interval, sending the ball inside off the left post.
Defender Zeno Debast sent a low cross into the box before Maximiliano Araujo teed up Goncalves, who struck first time.
Midfielder Geny Catamo hit the post for Sporting soon after before league's leading scorer Gyokeres doubled the advantage eight minutes from fulltime, scoring his 39th league goal of the campaign.
The Sweden striker leads the European golden boot standings ahead of Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah, both with 28 goals.
Sporting were without the suspended captain Morten Hjulmand, after the Danish midfielder picked up a booking in the derby.
SLIM HOPES GONE FOR BENFICA
Benfica, who were seeking a 39th championship, needed a better result than Sporting on the last day but instead were pushed further away from the title when they fell behind in the 24th minute after Braga were awarded a penalty.
Rodrigo Zalazar confidently converted from the spot after a lengthy VAR review showed that Benfica defender Tomas Araujo took down Braga forward Ricardo Horta.
Vangelis Pavlidis levelled for Benfica after the hour mark, scoring from close range inside the near post from an Angel Di Maria pass.
Braga were then left with 10 men in the 66th minute after midfielder Joao Moutinho was shown a second yellow card.
Sporting and Benfica meet again on May 25 in the Portuguese Cup final.
Boavista and Farense were relegated from the top flight while 16th-placed AVS will face Vizela, who finished third in the second tier, in the playoffs.
(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
