Portugal
Taca de Portugal 4th Round
Friday 24th November 2023
Kick Off 19.30 Actual 19.32
F.C. Vizela 2 C.F. Estrela Amadora 1 (AET) attendance 1,315
19’ 0-1
80’ 1-1
114’ 2-1
@ Estadio F.C. Vizela
Rua do Aidrin 497
4815 Caldas de Vizela
€10 Admission
No Programme.
We were on the 0940 EasyJet flight (which left 20 mins late) from London Gatwick to Porto, which arrived at midday and having collected our hire car, we drove east to Gandra (20 mins), checking in at our hotel before heading off to Vizela. It was 20 miles north east and we arrived at the ticket office about 15 minutes prior to it opening. We weren’t sure how serious Portuguese clubs, or more precisely supporters, take the national cup competition, so were pleased to obtain tickets easily, not even having to produce any identification details. The ground here is only two sided, with an all seated capacity of 6,100. As non-members, we could only buy tickets for the Bancada Nascente stand, the smaller of the two, but no problem. It was a decent view and you could sit pretty much in any part of the stand. Only around a sixth of the seats were occupied, such was the low turnout of locals. The visitors section (opposite us, in the top right hand corner of the main stand as we looked across) was also sparsely populated. It was easy to count the 62 away fans that had made the 220 mile trip north from Amadora (down near Lisbon) to Vizela.
The match was an all top division clash, as 14th hosted 12th, as far as league positions go. It was Estrela Amadora who opened the scoring, when a quick breakaway down the right was crossed in and finished from 12 yards after fifteen minutes. The best chance of the first half for Vizela came a minute before halftime, when they hit the crossbar with an effort from just outside the box. Estrela thought they’d doubled their lead midway through the second half, but had the goal ruled out for offside. Vizela equalised with ten minutes left, finishing into the bottom corner from 20 yards, after a cross was pulled back from the right. Five minutes later Estrela had a man sent off, having picked up a second yellow card, but they managed to hold out, taking the game into extra time. I can’t remember either side doing anything of note in the first period, but the hosts managed to grab a winner late in the second half, finishing a left wing cross off at the far post. Estrela then went down to nine men, ending any chance of them getting back level, losing a player to injury, having already used up their allocated substitutions.
