30 October 2007, by Paulo Carvalho

Braga held by Naval

Naval 1-1 Sporting Braga

Naval and Sporting Braga played to a 1-1 draw in Figueira da Foz last night. The home side opened the scoring in the first minute of the game with a goal by Saulo and the Arsenalistas tied it with a controversial penalty in the second half by Ronald Linz.

The home team could not have asked for a better start to the match, scoring what is currently the fastest goal of the season. Striker Saulo struck the ball across Paulo Santos and into the net just 23 second after kick off to make it 1-0.

Naval almost doubled their lead in the 44th minute when Saulo redirected a corner kick at the near post. The ball found its way to Elivelton, but the Brazilian smacked it against the crossbar.

A poor opening 45 minutes by Braga, where they showed little life, was in stark contrast to their performance against Bolton Wanderers last week in the Uefa Cup.

Jorge Costa made two substitutions at the beginning of the second half, bringing on Roland Linz and Ze Manel for Hussain and Wender, respectively. The changes appeared to ignite Braga who created two successive opportunities in the 50th minute for Joao Tomas and Linz, but both efforts eventually came to nothing.

Lively Linz

Linz then narrowly headed the ball over the Naval crossbar. Naval’s resistance was broken in the 58th minute as Elivelton was adjudged to have handled in the box, but TV replays showed it was a harsh decision.

Austrian striker Linz confidently dispatched the penalty past Taborda. To rub salt into the wounds, just one minute later the defender was shown a second yellow card and subsequent red. Linz soon had the ball in the net again, but the effort was ruled out for offside.

Braga then had two glorious opportunities to steal the three points as Jorginho dribbled his way right into the Naval box, but struck his effort agonizingly wide of the right post.

In the 84th minute, Vandinho could have made himself a hero, but was caught off-guard as the ball made its way past several Naval defenders and straight to him, and the Braga forward snatched an effort wide of the post again.

Naval almost grabbed a dramatic victory in injury time, as China took a free kick that beat Paulo Santos, but not the crossbar.

Naval:
Taborda, Mario Sergio, Paulao, Diego, China, Gilmar, Dudu (Fabricio, 62), Davide (Eanes, 85), Joao Ribeiro (Hugo Santos, 76), Saulo, Elivelton
Yellow Cards: Davide (44), Elivelton (53 & 59), Mario Sergio (56)
Red Cards: Elivelton (59)

Sporting Braga:
Paulo Santos, Joao Pereira, Paulo Jorge, Alberto Rodriguez, Carlos Fernandes, Madrid, Vandinho, Hussain (Roland Linz, 46), Jorginho, Joao Tomas (Jailson, 52), Wender (Ze Manel, 46)
Yellow Cards: Paulo Jorge (81), Vandinho (90)

Goals:
[1-0] Saulo, 1
[1-1] Linz, 58 (pen)