Rounds of 66, 65 and 68 have moved the Dane to 14 under par and given him an excellent platform heading into Sunday, but there are 15 players within four shots of the lead.

A late eagle on the 17th helped to edge South Africa’s George Coetzee into second position at 13 under par, while Nino Bertasio of Italy, Englishman Eddie Pepperell and Scotland’s Marc Warren are all one shot further back.

There’s a six way tie for sixth place with Belgium’s Thomas Detry, Spaniard Nacho Elvira, Joost Luiten of The Netherlands, English Pair Chris Paisley and Graeme Storm and Ashun Wu of China all on 11 under par.

Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and Sweden’s Sebastien Soderberg are amongst five players at ten under par. Both ended the second round on the cut line but are in touching distance going into the final day after shooting seven under par 64s for the rounds of the day.

Bjerregaard appeared to be on the brink of making his breakthrough in 2015 when he secured four top fives in his last nine events and he was a picture of consistency last term. He has not been able to quite reproduce that form this season and sits 114th in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex, looking for a good finish to the season to keep his playing privileges.

He got his round off and running in Vilamoura with a brilliant approach to the third and holed a 15-foot right-to-lefter on the fifth to hold a one-shot lead at the turn. A nice approach to the tenth handed him a two- shot advantage but when he failed to get up and down on the 11th and found a fairway bunker on the 14th, he was out of top spot.

A huge drive to the front of the par four 15th allowed him to get up and down for a birdie and when he used his length again to birdie the par five 15th, the lead was his once again.