Known to most of us around Europe as the Portuguese League Cup, the Taca da Liga is a domestic football cup competition sitting third in terms of importance. It is behind the Primeira Liga and the Taca de Portugal. Put simply, the Taca da Liga is Portugal’s EFL Cup.
The competition is administered by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional and has been in existence since the 2007-08 campaign. While its official title remains the Taca da Liga, look out on betting lists for the Allianz Cup as it has been marketed this way for sponsorship reasons.
Taca da Liga Format
Teams entering the Portuguese League Cup come from the top two domestic leagues; the Primeira Liga and the Segunda or ‘LigaPro’. Unlike with the Taca de Portugal or with the league cups in England and France, there is no European qualification offered for winning this tournament.
The 12 lowest-ranked teams in the competition are drawn together at random to play in six one-off games, the winners then being joined by 18 more sides in the second round which is run in the same way.
The 12 winners from the second round are then joined by the four highest-ranked sides who are given a bye for the Group Stage. At this point, the final 16 teams are split into four groups of 4.
In each group teams play each other only once, the big teams always playing away from home, and at the end of the three games the winners of each of the four groups qualify for the semi-finals.
The semi-final stage, played out in early January, still offers a home advantage for two of the teams with games being one-off games rather than two-legged affairs and once the finalists are known, they play-off at the end of January.
Biggest Teams in the Portuguese League Cup
The Taca da Portugal has been won most in its short history by Benfica, but unsurprisingly the other major names you’re likely to see in the final stages of the tournament are fellow giants Porto, Sporting and Braga.
While this competition doesn’t offer European qualification, it still hands out silverware and as such while some players may be rested during the initial stages you can guarantee that some of the biggest names on the Iberian Peninsula will be involved later on.
Key Betting Markets in the Taca da Liga
As always when looking at specific competitions, we need to know how the games are being played out and what the stats tell us before we take the plunge and bet on games.
In the case of the Portuguese League Cup, the sample used is the 2018-19 tournament in which from the Group Stage onwards there was an average of 2.55 goals per game scored. This isn’t a massive figure, and furthermore it was boosted by the big four banging in a number of goals themselves against weaker teams.
Given that the big sides have to play away from home to even things up, its perhaps no surprise that only 19% of matches were won by home teams, 27% were drawn and 54% were won by travelling teams.
With these statistics in mind, here are your best plays when it comes to getting involved in Portuguese League Cup matches:
- Handicap Betting (Group Stage) – while the away win statistic is high overall, sometimes the big sides do rest their players in the group matches and so with nearly half of all games not being won by the travelling team, there is an opportunity. Bet home sides on the handicap at +0.5 in any match not featuring a very heavy odds-on favourite and you’re bound to be ahead over the course of time.
- Total Goals – it’s a shame to hope in some way for negativity, but we can’t ignore the overall goals tally in this competition. At 2.55 per game, it’s not huge, but again it’s even less when taking out the big four in the Group Stage. So, betting on under 2.5 or in some cases under 1.5 in Group Stage games not featuring Porto, Benfica, Braga and Sporting or in the final stages of the cup can pay dividends in the long run.
Wager Now on the Portuguese League Cup
The Taca da Liga is a quality competition and you can bet on it safely and securely via any of Roger.com’s recommended online bookmakers now. Get on via one of our partners to ensure you are getting the best prices available!
