Liga Portugal Betclic:
Portimonense 0-0 Vizela
Sporting 3-2 Farense
Portimonense once again failed to find a way past supposedly inferior opposition while Farense fought tooth and nail during their narrow defeat in Lisbon.
First up last Sunday afternoon at the Municipal Stadium in Portimão, manager Paulo Sérgio’s men were expected to see off visiting bottom side Vizela and ease their own relegation worries but ended up having to be grateful for a meagre share of the points.
The match itself was not short of incident and hung in the balance until the final 20 minutes during which Vizela dominated following the red card dismissal of Pedrão for a shove on Essende.
Before then, Samu had rocked the Portimonense woodwork from distance, Buntic made an outstanding double save from Dener and Berto, and Jasper had hit the Vizela post after the interval. However, once down to 10 men, Portimonense did well to survive a late onslaught from the visitors with Alemão diverting a goal-bound Matheus Pereira effort onto the post and Nakamura denying Petrov at the death.
The result confirms that Portimonense will now be very much involved in the relegation dogfight for the rest of the season with only five points separating the bottom six clubs, and Porto, the 5-0 victors over Benfica last weekend, due to visit the Algarve this Friday for a 6.45pm kick-off.
Farense, still relatively secure in 11th place despite a run of six games without a win, were in action later last Sunday evening and acquitted themselves well at title favourites Sporting without ultimately having anything to show for their efforts.
Despite missing key players Mattheus Oliveira, Bruno Duarte, Rui Costa and Talocha through suspension or injury and falling behind to goals from Daniel Bragança and Gyökeres early on, Farense never threw in the towel and managed to get back on level terms with a superlative strike from Belloumi followed by a crashing header from Zé Luis. Unfortunately for the Algarveans, Marcus Edwards, Esgaio and Pote then combined superbly to construct the winner.
Farense will be on the road again this Saturday and it will be their turn to face the still bottom of the table Vizela for a mid-afternoon kick-off.
By SKIP BANDELE
