Taça de Portugal
The Taça de Portugal is the most important knockout tournament in Portuguese football.
The Taça de Portugal is the most important knockout tournament in Portuguese football.
The Taça de Portugal is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard as of the 2015-16 season. Organised by the Portuguese Football Federation since it was first held in 1938, the competition is open to professional and amateur clubs from the top-four league divisions. Matches are played from August-September to May-June, and the final is traditionally held at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, near Lisbon. The winners qualify for the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (or the runners-up, in case the winners are also the league champions) and the UEFA Europa League (unless they already qualify for the UEFA Champions League through league placing). Before 1938, a similar competition was held since 1922 under the name Campeonato de Portugal, which determined the national champions from among the different regional championship winners. The establishment of the Primeira Liga, a nationwide league-based competition, as the official domestic championship in 1938, led to the conversion of the Campeonato de Portugal into the main domestic cup competition, under its current designation. In fact, the trophy awarded to the Portuguese Cup winners is the same that was awarded to the Campeonato de Portugal winners, although titles in each competition are counted separately.
The first winners of the Taça de Portugal were Académica, who defeated Benfica 4-3 in the 1939 final. Benfica are the most successful team in the competition, with 26 trophies in 38 final appearances. Braga are the current holders, who beat Benfica in the 2021 final. There are participating 155 teams in the current season of the Taça de Portugal. The Cup is organised by the Portuguese Football Federation and is played by all teams in the Primeira Liga, Segunda Liga (excluding the B teams), and Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (excluding reserve teams), 22 District Championships runners-up and by 18 District Cups winners.
Benfica is the team that has won the most finals: 26 times. They were also 12 times the runners-up. Porto and Sporting CP share second place with both 17 wins. Porto holds the record for most times being the runner-up: 14. Braga is the most recent winner of the Taça de Portugal (2021). Braga beat Benfica in the 2021 final.
The final match has been played at the Estádio Nacional near Lisbon in Jamor every season since 1946, except in 1961 (in a rare occurrence, Estádio das Antas was chosen as a more convenient venue for both Leixões S.C. and FC Porto, despite being the home of the latter; an agreement was reached by both teams due to geographical proximity and capacity). In the years following the Carnation Revolution, the venue for the final match would be the home ground of the team that had won the Portuguese Cup the previous year; however, when Boavista won the Cup twice in a row, its home ground (Estádio do Bessa) was deemed too small and the matches were instead played in Estádio das Antas (FC Porto’s home ground at the time).
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