2015–16 Primeira Liga

	Leader
	Relegation to 2016–17 Segunda Liga

Primeira Liga
Season	2015–16
Matches played	102
Goals scored	235 (2.3 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jonas (10 goals)
Biggest home win	Benfica 6–0 Belenenses; (11 September 2015)
Biggest away win	Académica 0–4 Vitória de Setúbal; (24 August 2015); Tondela 0–4 Benfica; (30 October 2015); União da Madeira 0–4 Porto; (2 December 2015)
Highest scoring	Marítimo 5–2 Vitória de Setúbal; (13 September 2015)
Longest winning run	6 matches; Sporting CP
Longest unbeaten run	12 matches; Porto; Sporting CP
Longest winless run	9 matches; Arouca; Moreirense; União da Madeira
Longest losing run	6 matches; Académica
Highest attendance	63,054; Benfica 0–3 Sporting CP; (25 October 2015)
Lowest attendance	942; Arouca 1–1 Tondela; (25 October 2015)
Total attendance	1,179,549
Average attendance	11,564
	← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 5 December 2015.

The 2015–16 Primeira Liga (also known as Liga NOS for sponsorship reasons) is 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.^[2] The season began on 14 August 2015 and is scheduled to conclude on 15 May 2016.^[3]

Benfica are the two-time defending champions, having won their 34th title in the previous season. Tondela and União da Madeira are the teams promoted from the 2014–15 Segunda Liga.

Teams

For the second consecutive season, the league is contested by a total of 18 teams, which include the best 16 sides from the 2014–15 season and two sides promoted from the 2014–15 Segunda Liga (Tondela and União da Madeira).

Tondela, the 2014–15 Segunda Liga champions, make their debut at the top flight of Portuguese football, while runners-up União da Madeira return for the first time since the 1994–95 season.^[4] They replace Gil Vicente, relegated after four seasons in the Primeira Liga, and Penafiel, who return to the Segunda Liga one season after their promotion.

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

Stadia and locations

Benfica
Sporting CP
Belenenses

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

Marítimo
Nacional
União

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

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity	2014–15 finish
Académica	Coimbra	Estádio Cidade de Coimbra	30,210	14th
Arouca	Arouca	Estádio Municipal de Arouca	5,000	16th
Belenenses	Lisbon	Estádio do Restelo	19,300	6th
Benfica	Lisbon	Estádio da Luz	65,647	1st
Boavista	Porto	Estádio do Bessa	28,263	13th
Braga	Braga	Estádio Municipal de Braga	30,154	4th
Estoril	Estoril	Estádio António Coimbra da Mota	8,000	12th
Marítimo	Funchal	Estádio dos Barreiros	7,000	9th
Moreirense	Moreira de Cónegos	Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas	6,100	11th
Nacional	Funchal	Estádio da Madeira	5,142	7th
Paços de Ferreira	Paços de Ferreira	Estádio Capital do Móvel	5,250	8th
Porto	Porto	Estádio do Dragão	52,002	2nd
Rio Ave	Vila do Conde	Estádio do Rio Ave FC	12,820	10th
Sporting CP	Lisbon	Estádio José Alvalade	52,466	3rd
Tondela	Tondela	Estádio João Cardoso	5,000	1st in Segunda Liga
União da Madeira	Funchal	Centro Desportivo da Madeira^[A]	2,500	2nd in Segunda Liga
Vitória de Guimarães	Guimarães	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques	30,146	5th
Vitória de Setúbal	Setúbal	Estádio do Bonfim	18,692	15th

^ Due to lighting problems, União da Madeira will play their home matches that are broadcast on TV at Estádio da Madeira.

Personnel and sponsors

Team	Head manager	Manufacturer	Sponsors
Académica	Filipe Gouveia	Nike	EFAPEL
Arouca	Lito Vidigal	Joma	Banco BIC
Belenenses	Ricardo Sá Pinto	Lacatoni	TVI 24
Benfica	Rui Vitória	Adidas	Emirates
Boavista	Erwin Sánchez	Erreà	Mestre da Cor
Braga	Paulo Fonseca	Lacatoni	—
Estoril	Fabiano	Nike	Banco BIC
Marítimo	Ivo Vieira	Nike	BANIF
Moreirense	Miguel Leal	cdt	—
Nacional	Manuel Machado	Hummel	BANIF
Paços de Ferreira	Jorge Simão	Lacatoni	Banco BIC
Porto	Julen Lopetegui	New Balance	—
Rio Ave	Pedro Martins	Lacatoni	—
Sporting CP	Jorge Jesus	Macron	—
Tondela	Rui Bento	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^[5]	Pre-season	Luís Norton de Matos	9 June 2015^[6]
Arouca	Pedro Emanuel	Contract expired	25 May 2015^[7]		Lito Vidigal	1 June 2015^[8]
Vitória de Setúbal	Bruno Ribeiro	Contract expired	26 May 2015^[9]		Quim Machado	29 May 2015^[10]
Tondela	Quim Machado	Resigned	27 May 2015^[11]		Vítor Paneira	30 May 2015^[12]
Belenenses	Jorge Simão	Contract expired	3 June 2015^[13]		Ricardo Sá Pinto	9 June 2015^[14]
Sporting CP	Marco Silva	Sacked	4 June 2015^[15]		Jorge Jesus	5 June 2015^[16]
Benfica	Jorge Jesus	Contract expired	4 June 2015^[17]		Rui Vitória	15 June 2015^[18]
Braga	Sérgio Conceição	Sacked	5 June 2015^[19]		Paulo Fonseca	11 June 2015^[20]
Paços de Ferreira	Paulo Fonseca	Signed by Braga	11 June 2015^[20]		Jorge Simão	15 June 2015
Vitória de Guimarães	Rui Vitória	Signed by Benfica	15 June 2015^[18]		Armando Evangelista	20 June 2015
Académica	José Viterbo	Resigned	20 September 2015^[21]	18th	Filipe Gouveia	24 September 2015^[22]
Vitória de Guimarães	Armando Evangelista	Resigned	21 September 2015^[23]	13th	Sérgio Conceição	23 September 2015^[24]
Tondela	Vítor Paneira	Resigned	6 October 2015^[25]	16th	Rui Bento	6 October 2015^[26]
Boavista	Petit	Resigned	28 November 2015^[27]	14th	Erwin Sánchez	1 December 2015^[28]

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.)^[29]
(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	328,600	63,054	34,752	46,943	+10.3%^†
2	Porto	274,073	49,209	28,617	39,153	+31.1%^†
3	Sporting CP	173,879	40,639	30,057	34,776	+7.8%^†
4	Vitória de Guimarães	60,633	19,545	9,009	12,127	−17.9%^†
5	Braga	72,406	17,396	7,810	12,068	+19.0%^†
6	Arouca	32,473	23,540	942	6,495	+310.6%²
7	Tondela	37,952	22,003	963	6,325	+731.1%^1,3
8	Marítimo	34,537	7,200	4,250	5,756	+27.6%^†
9	Boavista	26,117	9,373	3,763	5,223	+22.3%^†
10	Académica	27,638	12,903	2,559	4,606	−1.3%^†
11	Rio Ave	23,147	6,685	2,558	3,858	+36.4%^†
12	Vitória de Setúbal	19,754	3,597	3,018	3,292	+4.4%^†
13	Belenenses	15,918	4,161	1,241	2,653	−12.7%^†
14	Nacional	12,532	3,927	1,318	2,506	+21.7%^†
15	Paços de Ferreira	14,446	3,077	1,761	2,408	−18.1%^†
16	Moreirense	9,473	4,425	1,078	1,895	−6.6%^†
17	União da Madeira	9,269	2,500	1,408	1,854	+63.1%^1,4
18	Estoril	6,702	1,468	1,152	1,340	−30.1%^†
	League total	1,179,549	63,054	942	11,564	+14.5%^†

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

Top assists

Scoring

Match streaks

Discipline

Club

Player

Attendances

See also

References

External links