Portugal
Taca de Portugal 4th Round
Saturday 25th November 2023
Kick Off 11.00 Actual 11.05
C.F. Canelas 2010 1 Club Sport Maritimo 3, attendance 525
6’ 0-1
45’ + 3, 0-2
75’ 0-3
90’ + 4, 1-3
@ Estadio de Canelas
Largo dos Fundadores
4410 Canelas
€5 Admission
No Programme.
This morning saw a 25 minute drive to Canelas, a few miles south of Porto, on the southern side of the Douro River from the city itself. The stadium is a real throw back, having been opened in 1966. It has a listed capacity of 10,800 although that figure would be way off the mark nowadays, especially with far tighter health and safety restrictions now in place, but impressive, nonetheless. The pitch is inside a cycle track, which you don’t seem too often either.
As with last night, this was a Portuguese Cup match, this time with the potential for a ‘giant killing’, as 4th in Liga 3A hosted 5th in Liga 2, with the morning kick off presumably to aid in the visitors scheduling their travel arrangements to/from Funchal, on the island of Madeira, although I believe the game was also being shown on live television, but whatever the reason, it certainly suited us!
We arrived around an hour before kick off, parking less than 50 yards from the ground entrance. The ticket windows were still not open, but were soon ready for business. Tickets were only €5 and we didn’t have to show any identification to buy them. The option was to go on the side of the main stand, which we did, or on the covered terrace opposite, where the visitors (83 of them) occupied one half and a handful of locals, the other. Both goal ends were out of bounds. There were refreshments (very limited choice) available in a room underneath the back of the stand, where the walls displayed numerous old photographs of past team lineups, back to 1966, when the club were formed, then known as Canelas Gaia F.C. Financial problems saw the club cease in 2006, but four years later they were reformed, following that up with a debut in the national cup competition in 2019.
It only look Maritimo six minutes to go in front, heading in at the far post, in a first half that saw both teams create plenty of chances. Maritimo hit the post, having gone round the ‘keeper and Canelas saw their best effort well saved, but it took until three minutes into stoppage time at the end of the half before the second goal came and again it went the way of the visitors, scoring with a free kick from the edge of the D that went in off the inside of the post. When they added a third, fifteen minutes from the end, curling in a free kick, it was game over. Six minutes from the end, Maritimo had a man red carded, but it was too late to affect the outcome, although Canelas did round off the scoring four minutes into stoppage time, finishing with an angled shot into the far corner.
The game finished just after one o’clock, so plenty of time to reach our second game of the day. It was only 31 miles east of here and certainly wasn’t going to be a problem, as we’d got four hours to do it!
