Handball's day in Alcobaça: Benfica completed the treble, Sporting won the craziest final I've ever seen
Two finals. One pavilion. One afternoon. That's what Portuguese handball served up today in Alcobaça, and if you weren't watching on RTP2 then I genuinely feel sorry for you because the men's final alone was worth the price of every TV license fee you've ever paid.
Let me take you through both.
Women's final: CJ Almeida Garrett 25-34 Benfica
The women's final kicked things off at 2pm and, look, I'll be honest — the result was never really in doubt. Benfica are the dominant force in Portuguese women's handball and have been for years. Five-time champions. Super Cup winners. The question was never IF they'd win the Portugal Cup, but by how much. And the answer was nine goals.
But that doesn't mean CJ Almeida Garrett didn't give it a go. This was the first time in the club's entire history that the team from Vila Nova de Gaia had reached a Portugal Cup final. First time ever. For a club of their size and resources, just being in Alcobaça was an achievement that deserves genuine recognition. And for the opening ten minutes, they actually made it a game.
Luciana Rebelo was phenomenal in that early stretch. Four goals in the first ten minutes. Four. She was finding angles that shouldn't exist, creating space out of nothing, and for a brief moment you could feel the Almeida Garrett supporters in the Panorama-Multiusos starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, the impossible was possible. The scoreboard was tight. The energy was there. The dream was alive.
But Benfica are Benfica. They weathered the storm, adjusted defensively, and slowly started imposing their quality. By half-time it was 18-16 — a two-goal lead that didn't look like much on paper but felt more comfortable than the numbers suggested. Benfica were in control. They were managing the tempo, rotating their bench, doing all the things that experienced teams do when they know they have more depth than the opposition.
The second half was a masterclass. Benfica cranked up the defensive pressure, Almeida Garrett's shooting percentage dropped, and the gap widened steadily. 22-18. Then 26-20. Then 30-23. By the time the final buzzer went at 34-25, it was a comfortable win that had never truly been in jeopardy.
For Benfica, this was the 10th Portugal Cup in their history and, more importantly, the completion of the national treble — Super Cup, Championship (five in a row, by the way), and Cup. A perfect domestic season. Every title available, won. Luís Monteiro's side have been the standard in Portuguese women's handball for half a decade now and this season was the definitive confirmation of that.
For Almeida Garrett, the final ended in defeat but the journey was the story. Helena Soares and her players can go back to Gaia knowing they've written a page in their club's history that can never be erased. First final. National television. A crowd in Alcobaça that gave them everything. Sometimes losing 25-34 to the best team in the country is exactly as good as it sounds. They'll be back.
Men's final: Benfica 39-41 Sporting (after extra time)
OK. Breathe. Because I need to talk about what just happened and I'm still not entirely sure my heart rate has returned to normal.
Benfica 39, Sporting 41. After extra time. In a Portugal Cup final. In handball. Eighty goals in one game. EIGHTY. I've been watching Portuguese handball for years and I have never — not once — seen anything like this. This wasn't a final. This was controlled chaos. This was two teams throwing absolutely everything at each other for seventy minutes and somehow, impossibly, being separated by just two goals at the end.
Let me try to piece together what happened because honestly the second half and extra time are a blur of emotions and screaming.
Sporting started the better team. They usually do in these derbies and today was no different. Ricardo Costa's side came out with intensity, pressing Benfica's build-up, forcing errors, and getting out on the fast break. Thorkelsson was unplayable in the first half — the Icelander scored five goals before the break and was finding pockets of space that Benfica's defence simply couldn't close. By half-time, Sporting had a three-goal lead and the feeling inside the pavilion was that the game was heading towards a comfortable Sporting win.
But Jota González had other ideas. The Benfica coach — and this is apparently his last game in charge of the club, which adds an emotional layer that's hard to ignore — made tactical adjustments at the break that changed the complexion of the game completely. He went aggressive with the seven-against-six attack, pulling the goalkeeper and playing with an extra outfield player. It's a high-risk strategy. If you lose the ball, the opposition has an empty net to shoot at. But when it works, it creates numerical advantages that are almost impossible to defend against.
And it worked. Benfica clawed their way back into the game goal by goal. The deficit went from three to two. Then from two to one. Then they equalized. The Panorama-Multiusos was losing its mind. Capdeville, the Benfica goalkeeper, was making saves from seven-metre throws that had no business being saved. Every goal felt like it weighed a thousand kilos.
There was a moment — I think around the 50th minute — where Taboada received a two-minute exclusion for hitting the ball into the face of Kristensen, the Sporting goalkeeper. It looked accidental but the referees didn't see it that way. Two minutes of numerical disadvantage for Benfica at a critical moment. And somehow they survived it. Somehow Capdeville made another save. Somehow the defence held.
The game went to the wire. The last five minutes of regulation were unbearable. Every attack felt decisive. Every miss was catastrophic. Every save was heroic. And when the buzzer sounded at the end of regular time, the score was level. Extra time.
Extra time in a Portugal Cup handball final. Between Benfica and Sporting. With seventy-plus goals already scored. I genuinely considered turning the TV off because my nerves couldn't take it. I didn't, obviously. Nobody could look away from this.
The first period of extra time was more of the same — back and forth, goal for goal, neither team willing to blink. Sporting edged ahead by one. Benfica equalized. Sporting went ahead again. Benfica came back again. It was relentless.
And then the final minutes. Martim Costa. Remember that name if you don't know it already. The young Sporting playmaker who's been brilliant all season. He received the ball on the left side with time running out, Sporting leading by one, Benfica throwing everything forward in desperation. Benfica had one last attack. One chance to equalize and force penalties. They went with the seven-against-six again. They committed everyone forward.
And then they lost the ball. The sequence at the end was pure madness. Benfica wasted an attack that could have put them two goals clear and Kiko Costa made them pay immediately — 39-39. Then Sporting regrouped. Two quick attacks. Two goals. Martim Costa with the killer blow. 39-41. The final buzzer sounded.
Sporting win the Portugal Cup. Their TENTH consecutive title in Portuguese handball. Ten in a row. A decade of dominance. Ricardo Costa said before the game that winning ten straight added responsibility. He was right. And his team delivered.
Ten in a row. Let that sink in.
I need to put this in context because the number is so absurd that it almost doesn't register. Sporting have now won ten consecutive trophies in Portuguese men's handball. Ten. That's not a dynasty. That's geological. That's the kind of dominance that belongs in a textbook about sporting hegemony.
And they did it today in the hardest way possible. Not with a comfortable win. Not with a cruise control performance. They did it in a game where they were 39-39 in extra time of a Portugal Cup final against their biggest rivals, with everything on the line, and found two more goals when it mattered most.
For Benfica, this will sting for a long time. Jota González's last game in charge and he came within two goals — two goals in extra time — of giving his team a trophy. The coach said before the final that Sporting were better but that the final would be different from the league games. He was right about that. It was different. It was closer. It was more dramatic. But the result, in the end, was the same.
Capdeville in the Benfica goal was immense. The saves he made from seven-metre throws, the reactions, the leadership — on another day, in another final, he'd be lifting the trophy. Instead, he's on the wrong side of a 41-39 scoreline and there's nothing he could have done differently.
Alcobaça: the unlikely capital of Portuguese handball
Can we take a moment to appreciate Alcobaça? A town of 50,000 people, known primarily for the monastery and the love story of Pedro and Inês, hosted two national finals in one day and delivered an atmosphere that bigger venues would struggle to match. The Panorama-Multiusos was packed for both games. The noise during the men's final was genuinely deafening through the TV — I can only imagine what it was like inside.
Both finals were broadcast live on RTP2, which is exactly the kind of visibility that Portuguese handball needs and rarely gets. Football dominates everything in this country — the coverage, the money, the attention. But days like today remind you that there are other sports being played at an extraordinary level, with athletes giving everything they have for clubs and fans that care just as deeply.
Two finals. Two incredible stories. Benfica's women completing the perfect season. Sporting's men extending a dynasty that may never be matched. And 80 goals in a single game that nobody who watched will ever forget.
Not bad for a Sunday in Alcobaça.