The 2018 Taça da Liga Final was the final match of the 2017–18 Taça da Liga, the 11th season 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 ...

. It was played on 27 January 2018 at

Estádio Municipal de Braga The Estádio Municipal de Braga (') is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium located in Braga, Portugal, and the current home of S.C. Braga, Sporting Clube de Braga. It has a capacity of 30,286 spectators, maki ...

. The competition involved the 33 clubs playing in the top two tiers of the

Portuguese football league system The Portuguese football league system consists of several leagues bound together hierarchically by promotion and relegation. Reserve teams are allowed to compete in the main league system, as is the case with most of Europe. However, they are not ...

– 18 from

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

and 15 from Segunda Liga – during the 2017–18 season. Reserve sides of Primeira Liga teams that played in the 2017–18 Segunda Liga were excluded from the competition.

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

and

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

faced off in a repeat of the competition's first final, held 10 years previously. Sporting CP won 5–4 on a penalty shoot-out after a 1–1 draw at the end of 90 minutes, winning the competition for the first time in their history.

Background

For the second consecutive season, this competition featured a

final four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

format with both the semi-finals and the final being played over a space of a few days in the same venue. The

hosted all matches. The two teams had played in the inaugural final in 2008 with Vitória de Setúbal winning on penalty kicks. Sporting CP had the chance to win their first

while Vitória de Setúbal could be the first team, other than Benfica, to win the competition multiple times. Both teams were aiming for their first title of the season.

Route to the final

''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away; N: neutral).''

Match

Summary

Gonçalo Paciência opened the scoreline with an early goal after disputing the ball with Uruguayan

Sebastián Coates Sebastián Coates Nion (; born 7 October 1990) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Uruguayan club Nacional. Having begun his career at Nacional, where he was a regular from his debut in 2009, Coates joined Li ...

, a left-foot strike on the turn to the bottom left corner from just outside the box. Both teams had clear chances to score throughout the match, with Sporting CP trying a breakthrough heading to the final third of the match. Sporting CP managed to equalise late in the game when it was determined, with the help of the

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

, Vitória de Setúbal midfielder Tomás Podstawski had handballed inside his area after a series of saves by their goalkeeper Pedro Trigueira. Dutch forward

Bas Dost Bas Leon Dost (; born 31 May 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a striker. Having begun his career at FC Emmen in the Eerste Divisie, Dost later played in the Eredivisie for Heracles Almelo and SC Heerenveen. In 2012, after ...

scored the subsequent penalty low to the middle. After the 90 minutes, the match was settled by a

penalty shoot-out 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 ...

. Sporting CP won as Podstawski was the only player to miss his penalty after he hit the crossbar. The match had one of the highest amounts of yellow cards in the competition's final, a total of nine, six for Vitória de Setúbal, including Edinho, who was booked after taking his penalty.

Details

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taca Da Liga Final 2018

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...