THE The most recent model of the competition only qualifies the top six from the previous season’s I League for the quarter-finals, in addition to the top two from the II League, with Guimarães, ninth in 2025/26, being left out.
In the competition in which they have been less happy, with just one triumph in 2022/23, FC Porto, national champions, are trying to avoid another early exit, as happened in 2025/26, when they lost at home to future champions Vitória de Guimarães, 3-1, in the quarter-finals.
On Wednesday, the ‘dragons’, undefeated in national competitions, will host Académico de Viseu, second placed in the II League last season, in what will be the second meeting between the two teams this season, after the ‘blue and whites’ won 3-0 away in the I League.
Académico de Viseu, who never beat FC Porto, reached the semi-finals of the League Cup in 2022/23, but ended up defeated in Leiria by the ‘blues and whites’ by 3-0.
Whoever passes this round will find in the final four, which will be played again in Leiria, Benfica, record holder of titles, with eight, or Gil Vicente, who was already in the final in 2011/12, losing to the ‘reds’ by 2-1.
The two teams only met once again in the League Cup, two seasons later, in the group stage and with a new victory for Benfica (1-0), who this season already beat Barcelona 3-1 at home in the championship.
Sporting, national runner-up and second team with the most trophies, opens the quarter-finals on Tuesday, with a home to Marítimo, who finished first in the last edition of the II League.
In addition to the four titles, the last in 2021/22, Sporting has four other finals and has reached at least the semi-finals in the last nine editions, while Marítimo was in the decisive encounter in two consecutive years, in 2014/15 and 2015/16, losing on both occasions to Benfica.
The two teams have already met on six occasions in the League Cup, with the ‘lions’ having recorded four victories, the last of which was 5-0 in the group stage in 2022/23, and the Madeirans achieved two draws, one in Alvalade, 0-0, in 2017/18.
Sporting or Marítimo will face a team from Minho, since, on Thursday, Sporting de Braga, the defeated finalist of the last edition, will host Famalicão, in the first meeting between the two teams in the League Cup.
The ‘arsenalistas’ have already won the most recent Portuguese professional competition three times and have been in three other finals, with Famalicão, thanks to fifth place in the last edition of the I League, already ensuring their best performance ever.
The final four of the League Cup, which will have a new format next season, will once again be played at the Leiria Municipal Stadium, with the semi-finals scheduled for January 5th and 6th and the final for January 9th.
