LIGA PORTUGAL BETCLIC: SPORTING 3-1 FARENSE
LIGA PORTUGAL 2 MEU SUPER: PORTIMONENSE 2-0 MAFRA
Last Sunday evening’s trip to runaway league leaders Sporting saw Farense deliver a fighting performance without ever threatening to cause an upset.
Fresneda opened the scoring in the 11th-minute before a Diomande header across goal made it 2-0 before the half-hour mark. Lucas Áfrico then benefitted from a deflection to give Farense hope already in first half stoppage time, but excellent Gyökeres stand-in Conrad Harder made sure the Champions ease home with a chested effort ahead of the final whistle. Under pressure coach Tozé Marreco must now hope for a positive result against Nacional in Faro this Sunday in order to avoid slipping even deeper into the relegation mire.
Meanwhile, last-minute transfer window reinforcements in the shape of ‘old boy’ Rui Costa (Tobol, Kazakhstan) as well as loan signings Rony Lopes (Alanyaspor, Turkey), Yusupha Njie (Al-Markhiya, Qatar) and Zé Carlos (Vitória de Guimarães), all of whose career profiles hint at ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’, have arrived in Faro.
In the second division, Portimonense’s Saturday evening home clash with lowly Mafra resulted in a mostly untroubled win. Always threatening debutant Benjamin Acquah slid home Heitor’s 37th-minute cross at the far post to give the Algarveans the lead before Tamble doubled the advantage after the break whilst keeper Vinicius made sure of a clean sheet at the other end. Manager Ricardo Pessoa’s men next travel to Madeira to take on 14th-placed Marítimo on Saturday afternoon.
Despite a raft of transfer window signings including Douglas Grolli, Lucas Araújo and forward João Neto, it is very disappointing to see Portimonense once again fail to retain some of their better players as the departures of top scorer Chico Banza and first team defensive main stay Filipe Relvas to Estrela Amadora and Vitória de Guimarães respectively were confirmed last week. In addition, seven-goal forward and current captain Paulo Vitor now also appears to be on his way to China.
By SKIP BANDELE
