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.
