Portugal

Primeira Liga

Sunday 3rd April 2022

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 18.01

Moreirense F.C. 0 Vitoria Sport Clube Guimaraes 1, attendance 3,486

62’ 0-1

@ Parque Desportive Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas

Avenida Comendador Joaquim de Almeida Freitas

4870-270 Moreira de Congres

€20 Admission

No Programme.

As with Braga, Moreirense were the other club who gave us misinformation concerning buying tickets on the night for our chosen match. We were told it would be no problem, but once again, the club website said different, when they finally released the information a few days beforehand. I phoned them again, but was told that it was members only and that there were no tickets left and that it was a sell out. Not giving up that easily, I decided to phone Guimaraes on Thursday afternoon, as on their website it stated that they had been allocated 1,200 tickets, although they were for members only. The woman I spoke to said there were indeed tickets left, but she couldn’t guarantee that would still be the case tomorrow, but if we could call in before 18.00, then yes, they would sell us two tickets, but we may need to join as members. As we were already going via Famalicao to pick up tickets, on our way to Braga, then it was no more than twenty minutes further to go to Guimaraes as well, so no problem. Sure enough, there were tickets left and we managed to buy them without membership. At least we could relax now!

The journey back north from our game in Coimbra was a shade over 100 miles and took just over an hour and a half, with plenty of time to book in at our hotel en route. Arriving at the ground early meant we grabbed a good parking spot overlooking the stadium, around 250-300 yards away. There were plentiful bars around to get food/drink before heading into the stadium. After a few minutes, we began to notice a very high proportion of those around us were wearing green and white colours, those of Moreirense, rather then the black and white of Guimaraes. It soon became apparent we were actually in the home section! Quite how we managed to buy tickets for the home section, but from the away club, for what was allegedly a sold out game is a mystery. It certainly wasn’t a sell out. The crowd was well below the 6,100 capacity, despite the away end looking pretty much full.

Moreirense had been dumped bottom of the league table last night, when Belenenses won, to lift them above tonight’s hosts. Guimaraes came into this in sixth place, hoping to close the gap on Gil Vicente, who currently occupy the final position for Europa League qualification. It was another tight match, which always had the feel of whoever scores first, will win, which is how it panned out. Guimaraes got the all important goal just after the hour mark, scoring when Moreirense failed to clear a cross from the right and the ball was put back across the six yard box and into the far corner of the net.

Portugal

Liga 2

Sunday 3rd April 2022

Kick Off 11.00 Actual 11.03

Associacao Academica Coimbra 0 Casa Pia Atletico Clube 2, attendance 1,038

21’ 0-1

63’ 0-2

@ Estadio Cidade de Coimbra

Rua Dom Manuel I

3030-320 Coimbra

€5 Admission

No Programme.

We could have done another treble today, which would have involved a tier four game, followed by a tier three match, before finishing off with a top division game, but we opted instead to just go for a double, which would mean a much more relaxed day. It took around 1 hour 25 minutes to drive south from our overnight stay, arriving about 45 minutes before kick off. We parked in the street, no more than 200 yards from the stadium. From the outside, it looked more like a shopping centre, with much of the exterior being glass. It was another of the stadiums used in the Euro 2004 Championships, having been rebuilt and modernised for the event and has a seated capacity of 29,744. It also hosted the 2020 Portuguese Cup Final, between Benfica and Porto, which was moved from the National Stadium in Lisbon due to safety fears during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is certainly no risk of Academica ever getting crowds anywhere near capacity. They are well adrift at the bottom of the league table and look certain to drop into Liga 3 at the end of the season. I had visited Casa Pia back in December 2019, when they themselves were second bottom in Liga 2, but today, they arrived here second in the table and look a good bet to gain promotion to the Primeira Liga, which shows how quickly things can be turned round. Their crowd that day was just 274 (70 odd were with the visitors Nacional) so to have 92 away fans present today was very impressive.

It was obvious from the start that there was only going to be one winner, but some poor finishing by the visitors and a battling performance by Academica kept it interesting. Casa Pia led 0-1 at the break, having opened the scoring when a defender diverted a cross past his own ’keeper whilst trying to clear the ball. The killer second goal came midway through the second half, the striker cutting in from the left before beating the ’keeper at his near post with an unstoppable shot into the top corner.