Portugal
Liga Revelacao U23
Tuesday 5th April 2022
Kick Off 16.00 Actual 16.02
Sporting Clube Braga U23 1 Sport Lisboa Benfica U23 5, attendance 380
25’ 0-1 (pen)
44’ 0-2
65’ 0-3
66’ 0-4
72’ 0-5
77’ 1-5
@ Cidade Desportiva do Sporting Clube Braga, Pitch 1
Rua de Cabanas
4700-048 Braga
€5 Admission
Team Sheet available.
We should have been back home today, but EasyJet informed us by text message at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon, that they had cancelled our flight. We managed to re-book onto an alternate flight at 07.00 tomorrow morning, but it meant we had an extra day to fill. Luckily, we managed to find a game to watch and even better it was being played at a ground neither of us had visited. Mind you, it wasn’t easy finding out exactly where the match was. Once again, we had the ineptitude of dealing with Braga. According to their website, the game was being played at Estadio Municipal de Braga, where we had seen the first team on Friday evening, but other sources suggested it was at their training complex. It didn’t help that there was no answer on any of the phone numbers on their website, despite trying for over an hour. They didn’t bother replying to an e-mail either. In the end it was a phone call to Benfica that confirmed the venue.
We decided that going by bus would be the easiest option. Rather than taking the metro into Porto, we headed into the airport and noted there was a direct bus from here to Braga, which only dropped at the bus station. It was €14 return and took less than 40 minutes. Although we had plenty of time, at least on the way, we opted to take a taxi, rather than walk to the ground, which cost €6 each way. After first taking us to the player’s entrance, then to the main stadium, believing we wanted to do the tour, we finally got dropped outside the public entrance to the training complex, where the ticket office opened 45 minutes before kick off and there was no problem buying tickets. The two main pitches here have seated stands, Pitch 1 has around 800 seats, whilst Pitch 2 looked to have a couple of hundred fewer.
As for the match, it wasn’t one to get too excited about. It was just not a contest and we got the feeling that Braga would offer little resistance once it became 0-2, and so it turned out. There was no atmosphere, bar a few polite hand claps. Perhaps it might have been different if Braga had contributed a little more. Benfica strolled into a 0-5 lead, before Braga finally scored a consolation goal with thirteen minutes left and in the closing minutes, one of their substitutes twice hit the woodwork, with the ’keeper nowhere near either of the efforts.
Our taxi arrived about ten minutes after the final whistle and we comfortably made if onto the last bus back to the airport at 18.45. It had been an eventful weekend, where we managed eight matches, albeit staying one day longer than we’d planned. We left on time at 07.00 for our flight back to London Gatwick. Oddly, the flight was nowhere near full, which seemed strange considering the flight on Tuesday had been cancelled. We’ve just got to battle EasyJet now, to try and obtain the extra outlay on hotel, food and drink costs. I don’t hold out too much hope!
