Portugal

Primeira Liga

Sunday 1st December 2019

Kick Off 17.30 Actual 17.34

Vitoria Futebol Clube Setúbal 1 Vitoria Sport Clube Guimarães 1, attendance 3,648

50’ 0-1

62’ 1-1

@ Estádio do Bonfim

Praca Vitoria Futebol Clube

2901-882

Setúbal

€15 Admission

No Programme.

The train from Lisbon took 52 minutes and cost €9.90 return. On arrival at the station, the ground is no more than ten minutes walk, so we headed there to buy tickets for the match, before heading into the town. There is currently refurbishment going on at the ticket booths, so tickets are being sold from the club office at present, so we were glad to be ahead of the queue as it was snaking back quite a way as kick off approached.

The ground here is very typical of the older Portuguese stadiums, having been built in 1962. It is an all seater oval shape, and as expected, had very little cover, although it remained dry throughout, so not a problem. The only choice of tickets for non Socios were €10 behind the goal, which was with the away fans, or €15 down the side, but at least you could sit where you wanted, so this was what we went for.

The match was 14th versus 6th in the league table. The first half was a very cagey affair, with Setúbal having the better of the early exchanges, then Guimarães coming into it as the game went on. The breakthrough came early in the second half, when an angled left footed shot into the far corner put the visitors ahead, before Setúbal drew level just after the hour mark, when a long ball over the top saw their striker finish a one on one chance past the ‘keeper. Neither side did enough to win it and a draw was probably a fair result.

Even with the match finishing fifteen minutes later than expected, it was an easy stroll back to the station for the 19.58 train back north to Lisbon.

Portugal

Segunda Liga

Sunday 1st December 2019

Kick Off 11.15 Actual 11.16

Casa Pia Atletico Clube 0 Clube Desportivo Nacional 1, attendance 274

32’ 0-1

@ Estádio Pina Manique

Rua Monsanto

1500-462

Lisboa

€5 Admission

No Programme.

With this kicking off early, due to being shown live on television, it was the perfect way to start the day’s football. The ground is in the north west of Lisbon, which meant a seven minute tram ride to the nearest Metro station, then a journey of seven stops northwards. A short walk would then be followed by a suburban train for one stop westbound, then finished off with a sixteen minute walk to the stadium. We went for the far easier and quicker option. A twelve minute ride from our hotel by taxi, which only cost €7.80.

The club had advertised the ticket pricing for the match a couple of days ago. €3 for Socios (members), €5 for visiting club Socios and €7 for General Public. We arrived at the ticket booth to find just two windows open, with the closed one being the one we needed. However, I just went to the window and asked for two tickets and handed over a €20 note and was handed back two tickets and €10 change. So, we were in the visitors section, but not a problem and it was €2 cheaper per ticket than we were expecting, so even better. The only possible problem was that there was no cover in the away end and the rain showers were very frequent, although not too heavy, but looking at the cover in the home section, it wouldn’t have really kept you that dry anyway, as it only looked to reach past the back couple of rows at best.

Casa Pia started the day second from bottom in the league table and with Nacional lying second, it looked like this would be a comfortable away win. Casa Pia had a couple of decent chances, before a left wing cross was finished off with a stooping header, to put Nacional in front just after the half hour mark. Very little else happened, apart from Casa Pia missing a second half penalty, which was blazed high over the crossbar, in a game that never really got going. At least the 70 away fans in our section could enjoy their trip home to the island of Madeira, knowing they are one step closer to a promotion place and an island derby with local rivals Maritimo to look forward to next season, although if Maritimo don’t improve on their performance at Benfica last night, then they might end up swapping places with them instead!

The match finished twelve minutes later than we were expecting, but the walk to Benfica railway station only took fifteen minutes, with the only hill being downward, so we easily made the 13.36 train, which was a three minute ride, and just one stop, eastwards to Sete Rios station, from where we would board the 13.49 southbound train for the second match of the day.