Liga Portugal Betclic:
Portimonense 0-2 Moreirense
Estrela Amadora 0-3 Farense
Last Sunday afternoon, Portimonense were left cursing their luck following an, in several respects, unfortunate home defeat to last season’s second division champions Moreirense which sees the Algarveans mired increasingly deeper in the relegation struggle.
Fabiano served early warning of the visitors’ intentions when smacking the crossbar in the third minute. Matheus then had the ball in the back of Nakamura’s net only to be denied by the offside flag, with Portimonense suffering a similar fate on the half-hour mark when Carlinhos’ successful free kick was chalked off as Tamble was adjudged to have been two centimetres the ‘wrong’ side of play. Tamble immediately had the chance to redeem himself but pulled his effort wide when through on goal.
Portimonense thought they were finally in front when Alemão headed home a parried Varela shot halfway through the second half, but VAR intervened once again with another offside verdict. Instead, Maracas benefitted from a deflected 76th-minute corner to put Moreirense one up and Camacho added insult to injury with a lob from a tight angle deep into injury time to make it 2-0.
The matchday reached its conclusion on Monday night with Farense’s trip to Estrela Amadora. An intense and often end-to-end encounter saw the visitors soak up early pressure before taking the lead from the penalty spot just before the interval. Belloumi quickly added a second following the restart, but Amadora did not down tools and Algarve keeper Ricardo Velho had to stand firm until Marco Matias killed off the match with a third ten minutes from the end.
Farense, who welcome Estoril on Sunday afternoon, should have as good as secured their top division status with the latest win but things do not get any easier for Portimonense. They next face champions-elect Sporting on Saturday evening in Lisbon, still stuck in the third-from-bottom relegation play-off place on 28 points, with now only Estrela Amadora (29 points) and Boavista (30 points) still in their sights with three matches remaining.
