Loan watch: Kiwior takes title leap | News

Jakub Kiwior and his Porto outfit have taken a step closer to a first Liga Portugal title in four years after a 3-1 win at Estoril at the weekend.

Jakub played the full 90 minutes as the Dragaos now lead the table with five games to go, though neither current champions Sporting CP nor Benfica have given up the ghost with the trio dominating as anticipated this term.

The defender was on the bench on Thursday as his team played out a 1-1 draw with Premier League side Nottingham Forest in Portugal, in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals. This Thursday brings a return to England for Jakub as Porto try to reach the last four at the City Ground.

The Premier League of course returned over the weekend and among Saturday’s fixtures was a tantalising 2-2 draw between Brentford and Everton, with the Bees introducing Reiss Nelson as a half-time substitute. Replacing Mikkel Damsgaard at the break, Reiss helped invigorate his side’s attack as the points were shared at the Gtech Stadium.

In the Bundesliga, it was a difficult day for Fabio Vieira’s Hamburg as they lost 4-0 at Champions League-chasing Stuttgart on Sunday, leaving them 12th in the table – six points clear of rivals St Pauli in the relegation play-off place. Fabio got another full 90 under his belt in the defeat.

Marseille returned to winning ways in Ligue 1 on Saturday with a 3-1 success over Metz in the Stade Velodrome, with Ethan Nwaneri an unused substitute. OM sit fourth in the table, just a point adrift of Lille in the third and final Champions League place.

Ismeal Cabia has been seeing plenty of the pitch in the past week with Shrewsbury Town in League Two, playing full matches against Bromley on Tuesday in a narrow 2-1 defeat, and Saturday’s 1-0 win over Oldham Athletic in Shropshire. The Salop are now 18th, but with survival now mathematically confirmed. One club not quite out of the woods yet for EFL survival are Crawley Town, who sit four points above the drop zone with just three games to play after a 3-1 loss at Bristol Rovers on Saturday – Louie Copley did however assist the consolation goal for Louie Watson, and played the whole match. Ismeal and Louie face off this Saturday as their two sides meet at the Broadfield Stadium.

In Sweden, Charles Sagoe Jr started and played 76 minutes for Kalmar as they were beaten 3-2 by Djurgarden in the Allsvenskan on Sunday, while across in Denmark, Lucas Nygaard and Brabrand kept two clean sheets in the Danish Second Division with Monday’s goalless draw against Thisted, and a 2-0 win on Saturday over Skive, aiding their survival bid. Will Sweet was not involved for Dagenham & Redbridge in their 3-3 draw with Chelmsford City, but did return to the starting XI at the weekend, playing 70 minutes against Worthing before leaving the field trailing 4-2 – the Daggers going on to ship seven by the final whistle.

Many of our women’s loanees were not in action due to the ongoing international break. As a result, Jenna Nighswonger, Laila Harbert and Rosa Kafaji were all without a WSL fixture; likewise Jessie Gale in WSL 2 and Maddy Earl in the SWPL 1.

Our two girls in Sweden were the duo to have played some competitive football within the past week – Vivienne Lia started and played 62 minutes of Hammarby’s 4-0 victory on Monday over Brommapojkarna, with two wins in as many games to start the Allsvenskan campaign. Straight after playing her first two league games for Rosengard, Cecily Wellesley-Smith joined up with the England Under-19 squad for their Euro qualifiers and since played 31 minutes to see out a clean sheet in a 5-0 win over Latvia, and then played the whole match at the weekend as they were edged out 3-2 by Wales.