2009–10 Taça da Liga

The 2009–10 Taça da Liga was the third edition of the Taça da Liga, also known as Carlsberg Cup for sponsorship reasons. The first matches were played on 1 August 2009. The final was played on 21 March 2010, with Benfica defeating Porto 3–0 to win their second Taça da Liga.^[1] The final was played at the Estádio Algarve, Faro.

2009–10 Taça da Liga

Tournament details
Host country	Portugal
Dates	1 August 2009 – 21 March 2010
Teams	32
Final positions
Champions	Benfica (2nd title)
Runners-up	Porto
Tournament statistics
Matches played	55
Goals scored	104 (1.89 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Carlão (3)
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

Format

The 2009–10 Taça de Liga began with a two-legged round between teams from Liga de Honra, the second level of Portuguese football. Winners join the clubs classified 7th–14th from the previous season's Primeira Liga (first level) plus two promoted to the 2009–10 Primeira Liga. There were six groups of three teams each, and every team play two games (once home and once away). Winners of the groups joined the top six teams from the previous season's Primeira Liga in three groups of four teams, each team playing three matches. Winners of the groups and the best second-placed team competed in the one-legged semifinals, with the winners advancing to the final.

Participating clubs

This is a list of clubs participating in the 2009–10 Portuguese League Cup:

• Clubs starting from the First Round: Gil Vicente, Beira-Mar, Estoril, Desportivo das Aves, Varzim, Santa Clara, Portimonense, Freamunde, Feirense, Oliveirense, Covilhã, Trofense, Fátima, Chaves, Carregado, Penafiel
• Clubs starting from the Second Round: Belenenses, Naval, Académica, Paços de Ferreira, Rio Ave, União de Leiria, Olhanense, Vitória de Guimarães, Vitória de Setúbal, Marítimo
• Clubs starting from the Third Round: Porto, Sporting CP, Benfica, Nacional, Leixões, Braga

Boavista was first included in the draw, but the club was excluded from professional competitions on 13 July 2009 due to financial debts. Boavista was scheduled to play against Sporting da Covilhã. On the following day, Penafiel and Carregado were invited to the professional leagues and, after both accepting, they officially joined the league on July 28.

First round

The matches will be played on August 1 and 2 (first legs) and August 8 and 9, 2009 (second legs).

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Carregado	1–2	Covilhã	0–1	1–1
Desportivo das Aves	1–2	Estoril	1–1	0–1
Beira-Mar	5–4	Freamunde	5–1	0–3
Oliveirense	0–1	Gil Vicente	0–1	0–0
Fátima	2–1	Varzim	2–0	0–1
Chaves	3–3 (2–4 p)	Santa Clara	1–0	2–3
Portimonense	1–1 (6–5 p)	Feirense	1–1	0–0
Penafiel	2–2 (2–3 p)	Trofense	2–0	0–2

Second round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ACA	POR	BEI
1	Académica[a]	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	Advance to third round				0–0
2	Portimonense (II)	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	2			0–0
3	Beira-Mar (II)	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	2				0–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Notes:

1. The rules state that the team with the lowest age average of players used in the second round advances to the third round.^[2]

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		VTG	COV	VTS
1	Vitória de Guimarães	2	2	0	0	4	1	+3	6	Advance to third round			2–0
2	Sporting da Covilhã (II)	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3					2–0
3	Vitória de Setúbal	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3	0			1–2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		TRO	FAT	MAR
1	Trofense (II)	2	1	1	0	4	2	+2	4	Advance to third round			3–1
2	Fátima (II)	2	1	0	1	3	4	−1	3					2–1
3	Marítimo	2	0	1	1	2	4	−2	1			1–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		EST	PFE	OLH
1	Estoril (II)	2	1	1	0	2	0	+2	4	Advance to third round				2–0
2	Paços de Ferreira	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	4			0–0
3	Olhanense	2	0	0	2	0	4	−4	0				0–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		RIO	GVI	BEL
1	Rio Ave	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	4	Advance to third round				1–0
2	Gil Vicente (II)	2	0	2	0	1	1	0	2			0–0
3	Belenenses	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1				1–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LEI	NAV	SCL
1	Leiria	2	1	1	0	3	2	+1	4	Advance to third round			1–1
2	Naval	2	0	2	0	2	2	0	2					1–1
3	Santa Clara (II)	2	0	1	1	2	3	−1	1			1–2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Third round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Porto	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Advance to knockout phase
2	Académica	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	7
3	Leixões	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
4	Estoril	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Académica qualified as best runner-up of all groups.

All times: UTC+0

Porto	1–0	Leixões
Varela 45+2'	Report

5 January 2010

19:45

Estádio do Dragão, Porto

Referee: Vasco Santos

Académica	2–1	Estoril
Eder 11' Lito 41'	Report	Antchouet 68'

3 January 2010

17:00

Estádio Cidade de Coimbra, Coimbra

Attendance: 829

Referee: João Capela

---

Académica	0–0	Porto
	Report

13 January 2010

16:00

Estádio Cidade de Coimbra, Coimbra

Attendance: 1,607

Referee: João Ferreira

Estoril	1–1	Leixões
Erick 59'	Report	Cintra 9'

13 January 2010

16:00

Estádio António Coimbra da Mota, Estoril

Attendance: 345

Referee: André Gralha

---

Leixões	0–1	Académica
	Report	Sougou 63' (pen.)

23 January 2010

16:00

Estádio do Mar, Matosinhos

Attendance: 1,192

Referee: Olegário Benquerença

Estoril	0–2	Porto
	Report	Belluschi 54' Sá 78'

23 January 2010

16:00

Estádio António Coimbra da Mota, Estoril

Attendance: 3,834

Referee: João Capela

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sporting CP	3	3	0	0	5	2	+3	9	Advance to knockout phase
2	Trofense	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
3	Braga	3	1	0	2	5	4	+1	3
4	União de Leiria	3	0	1	2	3	7	−4	1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

All times: UTC+0

Sporting CP	2–1	Braga
Saleiro 36' Veloso 65'	Report	Alan 50'

3 January 2010

21:15

Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon

Referee: Jorge Sousa

União de Leiria	1–1	Trofense
Tiago Luís 81'	Report	Silas 3'

3 January 2010

17:00

Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa, Leiria

Attendance: 527

Referee: Jorge Tavares

---

União de Leiria	1–2	Sporting CP
Carlão 70'	Report	Pereira 16' Veloso 36'

13 January 2010

16:00

Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa, Leiria

Referee: Artur Soares Dias

Trofense	1–0	Braga
Mércio 38'	Report

13 January 2010

16:00

Estádio do Clube Desportivo Trofense, Trofa

Attendance: 857

Referee: Bruno Paixão

---

Braga	4–1	União de Leiria
Bastos 22' Peña 38' Matheus 42' Paulão 68'	Report	Cássio 9'

23 January 2010

16:00

Estádio AXA, Braga

Attendance: 2,391

Referee: Bruno Esteves

Trofense	0–1	Sporting CP
	Report	Liédson 36'

23 January 2010

16:00

Estádio do Clube Desportivo Trofense, Trofa

Attendance: 4915

Referee: Paulo Costa

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Benfica	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7	Advance to knockout phase
2	Rio Ave	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
3	Nacional	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
4	Vitória de Guimarães	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

All times: UTC+0

Benfica	1–0	Nacional
Saviola 79'

3 January 2010

19:15

Estádio da Luz, Lisbon

Attendance: 36,521

Referee: Olegário Benquerença

Vitória de Guimarães	1–2	Rio Ave
Moreno 30'		Wesllem 72' Tomás 77'

3 January 2010

17:00

Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães

Attendance: 6,842

Referee: João Ferreira

---

Vitória de Guimarães	1–1	Benfica
Douglas 59'		Coentrão 75'

13 January 2010

16:00

Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães

Referee: Carlos Xistra

Rio Ave	1–1	Nacional
Costa 15'		Tomás 20'

13 January 2010

16:00

Estádio dos Arcos, Vila do Conde

Referee: Duarte Gomes

---

Nacional	1–0	Vitória de Guimarães
Juliano 54'

23 January 2010

16:00

Estádio da Madeira, Funchal

Rio Ave	1–2	Benfica
Gama 54' (pen.)		Di María 49' Martins 76'

23 January 2010

16:00

Estádio dos Arcos, Vila do Conde

Knockout phase

	Semifinals					Final
	Sporting CP		1
	Benfica		4
						Benfica		3
						Porto		0
	Porto		1
	Académica		0

Semi-finals

Sporting CP	1–4	Benfica
Liédson 37'	Report	David Luiz 8' Ramires 29' Luisão 68' Cardozo 90+4'

9 February 2010

20:15 UTC

Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon

Attendance: 20,000

Referee: Olegário Benquerença

---

Porto	1–0	Académica
González 81'	Report

10 February 2010

20:15 UTC

Estádio do Dragão, Porto

Attendance: 22,000

Referee: Pedro Proença

Final

Main article: 2010 Taça da Liga Final

Benfica	3–0	Porto
Amorim 10' Martins 45' Cardozo 90+2'	Report

21 March 2010

19:15 BST

Estádio Algarve, Faro

Attendance: 23,430

Referee: Jorge Sousa

Benfica

Porto

Benfica: GK 12 Quim RB 14 Maxi Pereira  39' CB 4 Luisão (c) CB 23 David Luiz LB 18 Fábio Coentrão  86' DM 2 Airton LM 5 Ruben Amorim AM 17 Carlos Martins  67' RM 20 Ángel Di María CF 10 Pablo Aimar  45'  62' CF 31 Alan Kardec  77' Substitutes: GK 1 José Moreira DF 27 Sidnei MF 6 Javi García MF 8 Ramires  89'  67' FW 21 Nuno Gomes FW 30 Javier Saviola  62' FW 7 Óscar Cardozo  77' Manager: Jorge Jesus

Porto: GK 33 Nuno RB 22 Miguel Lopes  11'  45' CB 14 Rolando CB 2 Bruno Alves (c)  45' LB 15 Álvaro Pereira DM 25 Fernando CM 28 Rúben Micael  45' CM 3 Raul Meireles RW 7 Fernando Belluschi  37'  71' LW 10 Cristian Rodríguez CF 9 Radamel Falcao Substitutes: GK 24 Beto DF 13 Jorge Fucile  52'  46' DF 16 Maicon MF 6 Fredy Guarín MF 20 Tomás Costa MF 8 Diego Valeri  46' FW 29 Orlando Sá  71' Manager: Jesualdo Ferreira

2009–10 Taça da Liga winners
Benfica 2nd title