Portugal

Primeira Liga

Friday 7th February 2020

Kick Off 20.30 Actual 20.31

F.C. Paços de Ferreira 0 Boavista F.C. 1, attendance 3,105

35’ 0-1

@ Estadio da Capital do Movel

Rua do Estadio,

Apartado 26

4594-909 Paços de Ferreira

€15 Admission

Programme free, 16 pages.

A visit here was never in our thoughts until a few days ago. We had been planning a weekend trip to Spain, which despite being ranked as a top league in European terms, is certainly not so when it comes to how poor they are at releasing exact fixture dates and kick off times, usually working on four weeks ahead at best. Having seen the latest batch of dates released, we booked our flights on 13th January, heading for our planned opening fixture of the trip at the 21.00 kick off at Real Valladolid C.F. However, despite tickets being available to buy on the club website in the days running up to us booking our flights, we were astounded to see that at just six days notice. the match was moved to 18.30 on the Saturday night instead! There were still two matches being played in Spain tonight though, but unfortunately they were at Alaves and Almeria. One of us had been to Alaves, whilst the other had been to Almeria, so no use to us.
Portugal was our only hope. There was only one match scheduled in the top two divisions tonight, here at Paços de Ferreira. The good news was that neither of us had visited the ground. The bad news was that we had booked flights into Madrid (Valladolid is only 2 hours drive north of here) so we were faced with a five and a quarter hour drive (369 miles), but as our flight was due to land at 13.35, then we would make it comfortably. We were also helped by Portugal being in the same time zone as here in the U.K. (1 hour behind Spain) so we had an extra hour to play with once we crossed the border. The only problem was, the flight was delayed, leaving one hour thirty seven minutes late, and having landed in Madrid, it then took another 15 minutes for them to get the doors open to get us unloaded! By the time we had collected our hire car, the SatNav was showing we would arrive at the stadium just 43 minutes before kick off. We would still need a fuel/food stop as well, but as there were no other options, we would just give it our best shot.

We arrived in Paços de Ferreira, parking in a side street adjacent to the ground, by 20.05. A five minute walk soon saw as at the ticket office, then it was a case of joining the long queue at the turnstiles, which was slowed considerably by the ‘patting down’ security check, but we had made it. We were seated with six minutes to spare! (7 if you count the minute late it actually started). The stadium has a capacity of 9,146, which is ample for most games in the top level of Portuguese football. The new seated stand behind the goal was the only part of the ground that wasn’t open tonight,

The match was 16th versus 8th in the league table. A lot of games I have seen in Portugal have been dull affairs, but that certainly wasn’t the case here, despite there being only one goal. A right wing cross was headed in powerfully at the far post to win it for the visitors, but Paços should have won this comfortably. They made chance after chance. They totally outplayed Boavista, pinning them inside their own half for long periods, but just couldn’t break them down. Boavista were awarded a penalty in stoppage time, but this was overturned by V.A.R. taking a ridiculous three minutes for them to review the decision. The match kept the interest throughout and was really enjoyable from a neutral point of view. The atmosphere was good too. The 400 or so Boavista fans, in the open end behind the goal, were in full voice and even a couple of rain showers in the dying minutes didn’t quieten them down.

It had been a long day, most of it spent under pressure in one way or another, but it had been worth it. The fact that it was such a good game certainly lifted our spirits. At least tomorrow would see less driving………..