2015–16 Primeira Liga

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	Relegation to 2016–17 LigaPro

Primeira Liga
Season	2015–16
Champions	Benfica; 35th title
Relegated	União da Madeira; Académica
Champions League	Benfica; Sporting CP; Porto
Europa League	Braga; Arouca; Rio Ave
Matches played	306
Goals scored	831 (2.72 per match)
Best Player	Jonas
Top goalscorer	Jonas (32 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Rui Patrício
Biggest home win	Benfica 6–0 Belenenses; (11 September 2015); Paços de Ferreira 6–0 União da Madeira; (12 December 2015); Benfica 6–0 Marítimo; (6 January 2016)
Biggest away win	Vitória de Setúbal 0–6 Sporting CP; (6 January 2016)
Highest scoring	Marítimo 5–2 Vitória de Setúbal; (13 September 2015); Vitória de Guimarães 3–4 Marítimo; (12 December 2015); Académica 4–3 Belenenses; (14 December 2015); Moreirense 3–4 Vitória de Guimarães; (6 January 2016); Tondela 3–4 Marítimo; (21 February 2016); Belenenses 2–5 Sporting CP; (4 April 2016); União da Madeira 3–4 Paços de Ferreira; (17 April 2016)
Longest winning run	12 matches; Benfica
Longest unbeaten run	14 matches; Benfica; Porto
Longest winless run	15 matches; Vitória de Setúbal
Longest losing run	6 matches; Académica; Tondela
Highest attendance	64,235; Benfica 4–1 Nacional; (15 May 2016)
Lowest attendance	705; Arouca 1–0 Estoril; (6 January 2016)
Total attendance	3,313,851
Average attendance	10,830
	← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The 2015–16 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. The fixtures were determined by draw on 4 July 2015.^[3] The season began on 14 August 2015 and concluded on 15 May 2016.^[4]

Benfica won their third consecutive and 35th overall title, after beating Nacional 4–1 in their last match. They finished the league with a record 88 points in 34 matches (from 29 wins and one draw), two points more than runners-up Sporting CP.^[5]

Tondela and União da Madeira entered the season as the two promoted teams from the 2014–15 Segunda Liga. On the last matchday, both teams were at risk of returning to the second division, but the combination of their results dictated União da Madeira's relegation alongside Académica.^[5]

Teams

For the second consecutive season, the league was contested by a total of 18 teams, which included the best 16 sides from the 2014–15 season and two promoted from the 2014–15 Segunda Liga.

Tondela made their debut in the top flight of Portuguese football, after winning the 2014–15 Segunda Liga title. while runners-up União da Madeira returned for the first time since the 1994–95 season.^[6] These two clubs replaced Gil Vicente, relegated after four seasons in the Primeira Liga, and Penafiel, who returned to the second division one season after being promoted.

For the first time since the 1990–91 season, the autonomous region of Madeira was again represented at the highest level of Portuguese football with three teams: União da Madeira, Marítimo and Nacional.

Stadia and locations

Belenenses
Benfica
Sporting CP

Location of teams in 2015–16 Primeira Liga (Mainland)

Marítimo
Nacional
União

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Location of teams in 2015–16 Primeira Liga (Madeira)

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity	2014–15 finish
Académica	Coimbra	Estádio Cidade de Coimbra	29,744	14th
Arouca	Arouca	Estádio Municipal de Arouca	5,000	16th
Belenenses	Lisbon	Estádio do Restelo	19,856	6th
Benfica	Lisbon	Estádio da Luz	64,642	1st
Boavista	Porto	Estádio do Bessa	30,000	13th
Braga	Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,286	4th
Estoril	Estoril	Estádio António Coimbra da Mota	8,000	12th
Marítimo	Funchal	Estádio dos Barreiros	7,200	9th
Moreirense	Moreira de Cónegos	Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas	6,153	11th
Nacional	Funchal	Estádio da Madeira	5,586	7th
Paços de Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	Estádio Capital do Móvel	6,404	8th
Porto	Porto	Estádio do Dragão	50,035	2nd
Rio Ave	Vila do Conde	Estádio do Rio Ave FC	9,065	10th
Sporting CP	Lisbon	Estádio José Alvalade	50,044	3rd
Tondela	Tondela	Estádio João Cardoso	5,000	1st (SL)
União da Madeira	Funchal	Centro Desportivo da Madeira^[A]	2,500	2nd (SL)
Vitória de Guimarães	Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,008	5th
Vitória de Setúbal	Setúbal	Estádio do Bonfim	13,468	15th

^ Due to lighting problems, União da Madeira played some TV broadcast home matches at Estádio da Madeira.

Personnel and sponsors

Team	Head manager	Manufacturer	Sponsors
Académica	Filipe Gouveia	Nike	EFAPEL
Arouca	Lito Vidigal	Joma	Banco BIC
Belenenses	Julio Velázquez	Lacatoni	Kia Motors
Benfica	Rui Vitória	Adidas	Emirates
Boavista	Erwin Sánchez	Erreà	Mestre da Cor
Braga	Paulo Fonseca	Lacatoni	—
Estoril	Fabiano	Nike	Banco BIC
Marítimo	Nelo Vingada	Nike	Santander Totta
Moreirense	Miguel Leal	cdt	—
Nacional	Manuel Machado	Hummel	Santander Totta
Paços de Ferreira	Jorge Simão	Lacatoni	Banco BIC
Porto	José Peseiro	New Balance	MEO
Rio Ave	Pedro Martins	Lacatoni	MEO
Sporting CP	Jorge Jesus	Macron	NOS
Tondela	Petit	cdt	Laboratórios BASI
União da Madeira	Luís Norton de Matos	Lacatoni	Museu CR7
Vitória de Guimarães	Sérgio Conceição	Nike	Banco BIC
Vitória de Setúbal	Quim Machado	Hummel	KIA

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
União da Madeira	Vítor Oliveira	Mutual consent	24 May 2015^[7]	Pre-season	Luís Norton de Matos	9 June 2015^[8]
Arouca	Pedro Emanuel	Contract expired	25 May 2015^[9]		Lito Vidigal	1 June 2015^[10]
Vitória de Setúbal	Bruno Ribeiro	Contract expired	26 May 2015^[11]		Quim Machado	29 May 2015^[12]
Tondela	Quim Machado	Resigned	27 May 2015^[13]		Vítor Paneira	30 May 2015^[14]
Belenenses	Jorge Simão	Contract expired	3 June 2015^[15]		Ricardo Sá Pinto	9 June 2015^[16]
Sporting CP	Marco Silva	Sacked	4 June 2015^[17]		Jorge Jesus	5 June 2015^[18]
Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Contract expired	4 June 2015^[19]		Rui Vitória	15 June 2015^[20]
Braga	Sérgio Conceição	Sacked	5 June 2015^[21]		Paulo Fonseca	11 June 2015^[22]
Paços de Ferreira	Paulo Fonseca	Signed by Braga	11 June 2015^[22]		Jorge Simão	15 June 2015
Vitória de Guimarães	Rui Vitória	Signed by Benfica	15 June 2015^[20]		Armando Evangelista	20 June 2015
Académica	José Viterbo	Resigned	20 September 2015^[23]	18th	Filipe Gouveia	24 September 2015^[24]
Vitória de Guimarães	Armando Evangelista	Resigned	21 September 2015^[25]	13th	Sérgio Conceição	23 September 2015^[26]
Tondela	Vítor Paneira	Resigned	6 October 2015^[27]	16th	Rui Bento	6 October 2015^[28]
Boavista	Petit	Resigned	28 November 2015^[29]	14th	Erwin Sánchez	1 December 2015^[30]
Tondela	Rui Bento	Resigned	8 December 2015^[31]	18th	Petit	9 December 2015^[32]
Belenenses	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Resigned	15 December 2015^[33]	13th	Julio Velázquez	16 December 2015^[34]
Porto	Julen Lopetegui	Sacked	8 January 2016^[35]	3rd	Rui Barros	8 January 2016^[35]
Marítimo	Ivo Vieira	Resigned	18 January 2016^[36]	10th	Nelo Vingada	19 January 2016^[37]
Porto	Rui Barros	Ended caretaking role	21 January 2016^[38]	3rd	José Peseiro	21 January 2016^[38]

Season summary

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Benfica (C)	34	29	1	4	88	22	+66	88	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Sporting CP	34	27	5	2	79	21	+58	86	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
3	Porto	34	23	4	7	67	30	+37	73	Qualification for the Champions League play-off round
4	Braga	34	16	10	8	54	35	+19	58	Qualification for the Europa League group stage^[a]
5	Arouca	34	13	15	6	47	38	+9	54	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
6	Rio Ave	34	14	8	12	44	44	0	50	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round
7	Paços de Ferreira	34	13	10	11	43	42	+1	49
8	Estoril	34	13	8	13	40	41	−1	47
9	Belenenses	34	10	11	13	44	66	−22	41
10	Vitória de Guimarães	34	9	13	12	45	53	−8	40
11	Nacional	34	10	8	16	40	56	−16	38
12	Moreirense	34	9	9	16	38	54	−16	36
13	Marítimo	34	10	5	19	45	63	−18	35
14	Boavista	34	8	9	17	24	41	−17	33
15	Vitória de Setúbal	34	6	12	16	40	61	−21	30^[b]
16	Tondela	34	8	6	20	34	54	−20	30^[b]
17	União da Madeira (R)	34	7	8	19	27	50	−23	29	Relegation to LigaPro
18	Académica (R)	34	5	10	19	32	60	−28	25	Relegation to LigaPro

Source: Liga Portugal, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Matches won; 7) Goals scored; 8) Play-off.
(Note: LPFP decided that only criteria 1, 5, 6 and 7 would be applied to establish the classification during the competition.)^[39]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Braga qualified for the Europa League group stage by winning the 2015–16 Taça de Portugal.
^ ^a ^b Vitória de Setúbal ahead of Tondela on head-to-head record; Tondela–Vitória de Setúbal 1–3, Vitória de Setúbal–Tondela 0–1

Positions by round

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Team \ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34
Team \ Round

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Benfica	855,474	64,235	31,590	50,322	+18.2%^†
2	Sporting CP	679,790	49,699	30,057	39,988	+24.0%^†
3	Porto	549,512	49,209	16,297	32,324	+8.2%^†
4	Vitória de Guimarães	211,182	22,218	8,975	12,422	−15.9%^†
5	Braga	189,862	19,428	4,169	11,168	+10.1%^†
6	Marítimo	104,474	9,400	4,250	6,146	+36.2%^†
7	Boavista	103,263	22,834	3,653	6,074	+42.3%^†
8	Académica	91,012	26,444	2,170	5,354	+14.7%^†
9	Belenenses	75,833	13,109	1,183	4,461	+46.8%^†
10	Vitória de Setúbal	75,406	10,998	1,900	4,436	+40.7%^†
11	Tondela	56,499	22,003	909	3,323	+336.7%^1,3
12	Rio Ave	56,125	9,023	1,615	3,301	+16.7%^†
13	Estoril	50,008	7,836	827	2,942	+53.4%^†
14	Arouca	49,006	23,540	705	2,883	+82.2%²
15	Paços de Ferreira	47,625	6,433	1,208	2,801	−4.7%^†
16	Nacional	42,327	4,753	1,318	2,490	+20.9%^†
17	União da Madeira	38,292	5,095	1,077	2,252	+98.1%^1,4
18	Moreirense	38,161	5,772	757	2,245	+10.7%^†
	League total	3,313,851	64,235	705	10,830	+7.2%^†

v t e 2015–16 in Portuguese football
League competitions	Primeira Liga (level 1) LigaPro (level 2) Campeonato de Portugal (level 3)
Cup competitions	Taça de Portugal (Final) Taça da Liga (Final) Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira
European competitions	Champions League Europa League
National teams	Senior (UEFA Euro 2016 qualification, finals) U23 (Olympic Games finals) U21 (UEFA Euro 2017 qualification, finals) U19 (UEFA Euro 2016 qualification, finals) U17 (UEFA Euro 2016 qualification, finals)
Club seasons
Primeira Liga	Académica Arouca Belenenses Boavista Benfica Braga Estoril Marítimo Moreirense Nacional Paços de Ferreira Porto Rio Ave Sporting CP Tondela União da Madeira Vitória de Guimarães Vitória de Setúbal
Summer transfers Winter transfers

Teams

Stadia and locations

Personnel and sponsors

Managerial changes

Season summary

League table

Positions by round

Results

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Hat-tricks

Top assists

Scoring

Match streaks

Discipline

Club

Player

Awards

Monthly awards

LPFP Player of the Month

SJPF Young Player of the Month

Goal of the month

Attendances

References

External links