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The 2015–16 Taça da Liga was the ninth edition of the
Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...
, a
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
cup competition organized by the
Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional The Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (English: Portuguese Professional Football League), also known by its acronym LPFP, is a governing body that manages professional football club competitions in Portugal. It was founded in 1978 as Liga Po ...
(LPFP) and contested exclusively by clubs competing in the top two professional tiers of
Portuguese football Association football (), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese students a ...
. The competition was sponsored by CTT and, therefore, was known as Taça CTT. A total of 37 teams contested this tournament, including 18 teams from the 2015–16 Primeira Liga and 19 non-reserve teams from the
2015–16 LigaPro The 2015–16 LigaPro (also known as Ledman LigaPro for sponsorship reasons) was the 26th season of Portuguese football's second-tier league, and the first season under the current LigaPro title. A total of 24 teams competed in this division, incl ...
. The competition format suffered changes relative to the previous season, with the first round (round-robin group stage) and second round (two-legged ties) being converted into single-legged knockout rounds. Trophy holders Benfica defeated previous runners-up Marítimo in the final to extend their record in the competition to seven wins.


Format

The competition format for the 2015–16 season consisted of three rounds followed by a knockout phase (semi-finals and final), but presents changes relative to the previous season. Nineteen teams competing in the
2015–16 LigaPro The 2015–16 LigaPro (also known as Ledman LigaPro for sponsorship reasons) was the 26th season of Portuguese football's second-tier league, and the first season under the current LigaPro title. A total of 24 teams competed in this division, incl ...
(reserve teams from Primeira Liga clubs are excluded) took part in the first round; one-legged ties were played between eighteen teams, with the nineteenth team receiving a bye to the next round. In the second round, the ten teams advancing from the previous round (nine winners plus the team with a bye) were joined by the twelve teams placed 5th–16th in the 2014–15 Primeira Liga and by the two teams promoted to 2015–16 Primeira Liga. Again, one-legged ties were played between the twenty-four teams, with the winners advancing to the third round. The third round featured the twelve winners of the previous round and the four best-placed teams in the 2014–15 Primeira Liga. The sixteen teams were drawn into four groups that were contested in a single round-robin format, with each team playing at least one game at home. The four group winners qualified for the semi-finals, which were played as single-legged ties. The final was played at a neutral venue.


Tiebreakers

In the third round, teams are ranked according to
points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...
(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: #highest
goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...
in all group matches; #highest number of scored goals in all group matches; #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 The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
to determine the winner.


Teams

Thirty-seven teams competing in the two professional tiers of Portuguese football for the 2015–16 season were eligible to participate in this competition. For Primeira Liga teams, the final league position in the previous season determined in which round they enter the competition. ;Key: *Nth: League position in the 2014–15 season *P1: Promoted to the Primeira Liga *P2: Promoted to the LigaPro *R1: Relegated to the LigaPro


Schedule

All draws were held at the LPFP headquarters in
Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...
, except for the draw for the first and second rounds, which took place in
Loulé Loulé () is a city and Concelho, municipality in the region of Algarve, Faro District, district of Faro, Portugal. In 2021, the population of the entire municipality was 72,373 inhabitants, in an area of approximately . The municipality has two p ...
.


First round

The 19 non-reserve teams competing in the
2015–16 LigaPro The 2015–16 LigaPro (also known as Ledman LigaPro for sponsorship reasons) was the 26th season of Portuguese football's second-tier league, and the first season under the current LigaPro title. A total of 24 teams competed in this division, incl ...
entered the competition in this round. Eighteen teams were paired against each other for nine single-legged ties, while the nineteenth team ( Famalicão) was given a bye to the next round. The draw took place on 4 July 2015, and matches were played on 1–2 August 2015.


Second round

In the second round, the nine first-round winners and Famalicão, who were given a bye to this round, joined the 12 teams ranked 5th–16th in the 2014–15 Primeira Liga and the two teams promoted from the 2014–15 Segunda Liga. These 24 teams were paired against each other into 12 single-legged ties, with the winners advancing to the next round. The draw took place on 4 July 2015, and matches were played through September and October 2015.


Third round

In the third round, the 12 second-round winners joined the four top-ranked teams from the 2014–15 Primeira Liga: Benfica (1st), Porto (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. Group matches are played in a single round-robin format, ensuring that each team plays at least one match at home. The draw took place on 28 October 2015, 12:00 WET, and matches were played on 15 November, 28–30 December 2015, 19–20 January and 26–27 January 2016.


Group A


Group B


Group C


Group D


Knockout phase

In the knockout phase, the four teams advancing from the third round contested one-legged semi-final matches for a place in the competition final. The winners of Groups A and B host the winners of Groups C and D, respectively. The semi-finals were played on 10 February and 2 May, and the final was played on 20 May at
Estádio Cidade de Coimbra The Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (') is a stadium in Coimbra, Portugal. This stadium belongs to the Municipality of Coimbra and is mainly used by the Associação Académica de Coimbra - O.A.F., Académica de Coimbra's soccer, football team. The s ...
, in
Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...
.


Semi-finals

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Final


Notes


References


External links


Competition page
at LPFP {{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 Taca da Liga Taça da Liga Taca da Liga Taca da Liga