Promotion contenders stutter with draws all round | OneFootball

Round 16 of the Segunda Liga started in 2024, was interspersed with Round 17, and only ended in 2025.

However, the réveillon brought us a lot of surprises in the battles for promotion and relegation.

Top of the League but not top performances

Does anyone want to be promoted? This round made one thing perfectly clear: much like the Primeira Liga, it seems that no one wants to win it. Or be promoted. Both leaders Penafiel and Tondela lost points in their respective matches. Two draws for these teams who have been clearly out of shape for some time now.

It was a perfect opportunity for teams like Académico, Torreense, Chaves or Leiria to join the leaders and make this battle for promotion even more interesting. But nothing like that happened. All of them drew their matches too, leaving everything as it was before. In fact, Académico and Chaves seem to be losing steam. It is now three games without a win for the Viriathus and four for the Chaveiros.

To answering the main question: no, it doesn’t seem that anyone wants to be promoted to the main stage in Portugal.

Felgueiras slowly joining the top

It has been an up-and-down season for the newly promoted northern side Felgueiras. They started really badly, almost with a premonition of relegation above their heads. However, they seem to be embracing their experienced coach’s ideas. Bento Agostinho has been with Felgueiras since 2022, promoting them to the Segunda Liga from Liga 3. However, his job was at risk at the beginning of the season with very poor performances and not being able to win at home.

But the truth is that now everything is lining up, especially since he was able to extract the best out of Carlos Eduardo, the deadly striker for the northern side. A 1-0 victory at home to Paços de Ferreira put them on 22 points, only three points behind teams like União de Leiria or Chaves and four away from Académico de Viseu. Having clocked up three wins in the past four matches the question is: are they going to enter the fight for promotion with half of the season left to be played?

The pit is getting deeper

The bottom teams fighting against relegation don’t seem to be getting any better. Even though Oliveirense managed to produce a win recently against a gutted Marítimo, they have only accumulated 9 points from 17 games and they are in the bottom of the pit with no signs of getting out of it. Only a herculean effort would do that. FC Porto B are getting humbled every week. They are so humble that right now they are opening the goal like it is some sort of charity for the opposition. Zero wins in the last 5 matches, which is just unacceptable!

On the other hand, Mafra are a case study. Currently lying in a relegation playoff spot, it is undeserved given Mafra are playing like a big contender, always pushing and having the control of the game… only to out of nowhere they make a silly mistake that costs them the match. Maybe it is because of the young age of their players, who knows? Some experience in this winter transfer window might be the solution. It’s only one win in the past 5 matches for Mafra, but they are clearly on the right path, unlike their fellow colleagues in the pit.

Player of the week: Carlos Eduardo (Felgueiras)

The young striker is giving headaches to all of the opponents of Felgueiras. He recently joined Roberto from Tondela and Anthony Carter from Alverca in the top scorers list. Only 22 years of age, but his intelligence and positioning are of a much more experienced player. Even when he doesn’t score, he attracts the opposition’s defenders like very few strikers can do. He has been the main character in this Felgueiras side and the second half of the season can be a lot about him.