Portugal

Primeira Liga

Saturday 2nd April 2022

Kick Off 20.30 Actual 20.32

F.C. Famalicao 1 Boavista F.C. 2, attendance 4,246

17’ 0-1 (pen)

38’ 0-2

47’ 1-2

@ Estadio Municipal de Famalicao

Rua Antonio Ferreira Magalhaes 142

4760-412 Vila Nova de Famalicao

€10 Admission

No Programme.

Having been given misinformation regarding buying tickets on the day at the S.C. Braga match, I had telephoned Famalicao yesterday afternoon to find out the arrangements for their match, just to be on the safe side. I was told tickets would only be sold to members at the ticket booths prior to kick off, but if we could call in during Friday afternoon, then there would be no problem. The ground was more or less en-route to our evening match anyway, so not a problem. Having arrived at the stadium, we walked inside through an open gate, but could see no ticket office. A very friendly member of staff, who knew all about my phone call yesterday, directed us to the ticket office, which was in town and less than two minutes drive away, and sure enough, there were 2 tickets already put aside for us. Excellent service!

We arrived at the ground very early for the match, parking in the road opposite. We had plenty of time to walk round what was a very unremarkable town, eventually finding a restaurant that was open (most appeared closed until 19.00 at least which is not good to fit around football). As we walked back towards the stadium we had our first glimpse of the riot police in action. Three van loads arrived, with flashing blue lights, to attend a bar where a group of half a dozen Boavista fans were stood. We had heard some chanting, but there looked to be very little else happening. Outside the away end at the stadium, which we had to pass to reach our seats, we saw another Boavista fan ’dealt with’. He was set upon by five officers and given quite a beating, before being hand cuffed and led away. They certainly have a low tolerance towards trouble at matches.

The match was 12th versus 13th in the league table, in a stadium that holds less than 8,000, with a very small section for away fans, so it was understandable that only members could purchase tickets on the night. We had been told that Boavista were classed as a ’risk’ match, so were surprised when taking our seats, to be asked by the stewards if we were home or away fans. There were 20-25 Boavista fans, in club colours, sat in the end block of the home end up against the fence segregating us from the visiting fans, which was rather strange.

The match itself never reached any great heights. Boavista had opened the scoring from the penalty spot and were 0-2 up by halftime. It was very comfortable for them and Famalicao had offered very little. The second half improved, helped by the hosts pulling a goal back two minutes after the restart and despite building up pressure on the Boavista goal, they couldn’t find an equaliser. The visitors were reduced to ten men two minutes into stoppage time, for picking up a second yellow card, but it was too late to affect the outcome of the match.

The first two photos below were taken yesterday afternoon when we called in to buy our tickets.