From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Gil Vicente, and it could have been more.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Age has not caught João Moutinho yet — 7.87
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market9 Nov 2026
Víctor Gómez wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Braga hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match7 Nov 2026
Braga cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.51 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
No mercy from Braga
Boavista will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Braga were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad2 Nov 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match31 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Braga
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market2 Nov 2026
Ricardo Horta wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Braga hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Braga
Ricardo Horta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Gustaf Lagerbielke was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match31 Oct 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Braga and Boavista in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Mario Dorgeles was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.55. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 9.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Oct 2026
Braga refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match24 Oct 2026
10 unbeaten for Braga
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Braga did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Pau Víctor runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roberto Fernández. 2‑1 against Vitoria Guimaraes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.99, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Dorgeles has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Bright Arrey-Mbi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Braga
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Braga
Ricardo Horta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gabriel Moscardo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Braga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright Arrey-Mbi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
7.79, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Braga had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Braga do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Rodrigues is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bright Arrey-Mbi and Braga agree another 4 years.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
132% of the income goes out in wages at Braga
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fran Navarro, and the manager let it.
Match10 Oct 2026
It needed Gabri Martínez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Famalicao, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
5.63. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match3 Oct 2026
Braga make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Braga have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Braga
Ricardo Horta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nuno Patrício is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Gustaf Lagerbielke’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Braga.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Gustaf Lagerbielke was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.95. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.57 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Braga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright Arrey-Mbi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samy Merheg is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Braga do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 9.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 9.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Santa Clara, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Lukáš Horníček
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Dorgeles has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
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Player ratings
Mario Dorgeles was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Pau Víctor
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Sergio Barcia’s exile
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
João Moutinho, 40, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 40, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Braga
Ricardo Horta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Renato Amorim is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ricardo Horta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustaf Lagerbielke. 1‑0 against Maritimo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Cardoso
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Braga lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Adrian Leon Barišić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Pau Víctor runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bright Arrey-Mbi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Wages eat 99% of everything Braga earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market14 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Braga will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Cardoso
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Braga lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Braga say no — this time
The offer from Porto for Roberto Fernández was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Age has not caught João Moutinho yet — 7.92
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Sep 2026
Braga make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Braga have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Braga
Ricardo Horta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Afonso Leite is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Braga have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Fran Navarro’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Braga.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 14 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Cardoso
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Braga lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Sandro Vidigal has come up in conversations Braga were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Gustaf Lagerbielke’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Braga.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.96 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.52 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
Francisco Cardoso damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Braga say no — this time
The offer from Benfica for Víctor Gómez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match22 Aug 2026
Braga strike at the death to beat Rio Ave
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Rio Ave had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Braga did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Age has not caught João Moutinho yet — 7.85
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Braga
Ricardo Horta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roberto Fernández. 1‑0 against Rio Ave, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Braga
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Pau Víctor
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Francisco Cardoso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Fernando Mota joins the Braga first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fernando Mota is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Estoril Praia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Braga dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Yojan Garcés would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yojan Garcés is living that version at Braga, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Braga heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ricardo Horta commits to Braga for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Cremonese come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Braga did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: RB Leipzig have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lukáš Horníček. The answer from Braga has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
353 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” João Moutinho commits to Braga for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Braga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.