2009–10 Taça da Liga

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)

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 2009, with Benfica defeating Porto 3–0 to win their second Taça da Liga.[1] The final was played at the Estádio Algarve, Faro.

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.	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	D	Pts	Qualification	ACA	POR	BEI
1	Académica[lower-alpha 1]	2	2	2	Advance to third round			0–0
2	Portimonense (II)	2	2	2		0–0
3	Beira-Mar (II)	2	2	2			0–0

Source:
Notes:

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

Source:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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	Advance to knockout phase
3	Leixões	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1
4	Estoril	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

Source:

Académica qualified as best runner-up of all groups.

All times: UTC+0

5 January 2010