19 March 2007, by Sean Gillen

   Portuguese abroad weekly roundup

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England - Premiership

Top two win easily

Manchester United kept up their relentless pursuit of a first Premiership title in four years with a 4-1 victory over Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo started for the Red Devils, and was in scintillating form as United made it six league wins in a row.

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea stay six points behind the leaders after a 3-0 home win over Sheffield United, with the Portuguese manager selecting Ricardo Carvalho in central defence, while Paulo Ferreira came on for the final twenty-five minutes for the Blues.

Manuel Fernandes turned in another impressive performance in midfield for Everton as they stunned Arsenal with a late goal to win 1-0 at Goodison Park. Nuno Valente missed the match through injury.

Ricardo Rocha kept his place in the Tottenham defence for their routine 3-1 home win over Watford, but Pedro Mendes’ ankle injury kept him out of Portsmouth’s 0-0 draw with Reading.

Luis Boa Morte was introduced for the final five minutes as West Ham gave themselves a glimmer of hope for survival with a 2-1 away win at Blackburn. Abel Xavier played in defence for Middlesbrough as they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City.

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France - Ligue 1

PSG despair

Paris Saint-Germain sunk further into trouble in Ligue 1 as a 1-0 away defeat at Rennes sees them remain in 19th place and deep in relegation trouble. Pedro Pauleta started for PSG, but was substituted early in the second half of what was a poor performance by the side from the capital.

Champions Lyon enjoyed a comfortable evening on Saturday, Tiago playing the full ninety minutes in a 3-0 win at Nancy. Marco Ramos played the full match at left-back for Lens as they were beaten 1-0 at Auxerre.

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Germany - Bundesliga

Bremen turn up pressure

Werder Bremen stayed three points behind Bundesliga leaders Schalke after a 2-0 home win over Mainz. Hugo Almeida started for Bremen after his recent goalscoring run, but was replaced on the hour mark.

Schalke stay top after a 1-0 win over Stuttgart, captained by Fernando Meira, on Saturday at the AufSchalke Arena. Sergio Pinto played the first 80 minutes of Aachen’s 2-0 victory over Bielefeld, while Wolfsburg were without Alex for their 3-1 win against Bochum.

Borussia Monchengladbach came within minutes of a precious point in their battle for survival, only to concede a 91st minute goal to lose 1-0 at Bayer Leverkusen. Ze Antonio played in defence for Gladbach, who sit bottom of the table and five points from safety.

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Italy - Serie A

Esteves hits net

Midfielder Ricardo Esteves scored his first goal of the season for Reggina ten seconds after coming on as a substitute in their 4-1 win at Catania. The former Benfica man came on in the 85th minute and sealed the win with the fourth goal when he tapped in from close range.

Inter made it 28 matches without defeat in Serie A as a Zlatan Ibrahimovic double saw off Ascoli. Luis Figo played the full ninety minutes in a 2-1 away victory. Fernando Couto’s Parma gave themselves a boost in the fight against relegation as the veteran defender played in a 1-0 home win over Siena.

Jose Vidigal came on ten minutes into the second half of Livorno’s 4-0 defeat at Udinese.

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Spain - La Liga

Barcelona hit form

Barcelona sent out a warning to their title rivals as they dismantled Recreativo 4-0 at the Nuevo Colombino. Deco impressed before being taken off with twenty minutes left for the visitors, while former Portuguese international Beto was in the Recre backline.

Sevilla stayed level on points with the champions following a 2-0 home win over Celta Vigo at the Ramon Sanchez PizJuan. Both sides included a Portuguese on their bench, with Duda unused by the home side and Miguel Areias not called upon by Celta.

Valencia’s outside hopes of the title took a severe blow as they were stunned, 2-0, by Racing Santander at the Mestalla. Miguel started the match at right-back for Los Ches, while Hugo Viana was introduced at half time.

Atletico Madrid also suffered a setback in their hopes for a Champions League place, with Ze Castro starting in their 1-0 loss at Zaragoza. Costinha was on the bench and Maniche was out injured for Los Rojiblancos.

Jorge Andrade, currently the subject of much transfer speculation, helped his Deportivo La Coruna side to a 1-0 victory over Getafe at the Riazor. Jose Nunes did the same with Mallorca, as the Islanders included the centre-back in the side that beat Betis 2-0.

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Others

Belgium

Standard Liege took advantage of Jupiler League leaders Racing Genk’s surprise defeat at Mons-Bergen by winning 3-2 at Roeselare to move to within five points of the top. Nuno Coelho was the sole Portuguese player to appear for Standard, the defender coming on in the 68th minute.

Cyprus

Helio Pinto scored the final goal after coming on as a substitute as league leaders APOEL won 4-0 away at AEL on Saturday. Pinto had replaced fellow Portuguese Ricardo Fernandes in the 85th minute, and scored in the last minute of normal time.

Second place Omonia, without Nelson Veiga, Pedro Torrao and Edgar Marcelinho slipped seven points behind the leaders after a surprise 3-1 home defeat to ENP. Joao Paiva played the full ninety minutes as Apollon lost 1-0 at Digenis.

Egypt

Egyptian champions Al Ahly, managed by Portuguese Manuel Jose, advanced to the last-16 of the African Champions League after beating Zimbabwean side Highlanders over two legs. After a 0-0 draw in Bulawayo in the first leg, the Portuguese guided his team to a 2-0 home win on Sunday to set up a meeting with South African outfit Mamelodi Sundowns in the next round.

Greece

Daniel Fernandes kept a clean sheet as PAOK Salonika moved up to 4th place with a 2-0 win at bottom placed Ionikos. Lourenco played the full match, while Carlos Carneiro watched from the bench, for Panionios as they drew 1-1 at Xanthi.

Paulo Costa played for Aris as they held champions and league leaders Olympiakos 0-0 in Athens. Former Benfica midfielder Ednilson started but was taken off after 56 minutes of OFI’s 2-1 at Aigaleo.

Holland

Champions PSV suffered a humiliating afternoon on Sunday as title challengers Ajax won 5-1 at the Phillips Stadium. Manuel da Costa started for PSV, but was taken off at half time as manager Ronald Koeman introduced striker Patrick Kluivert to attempt to reverse the 2-0 deficit. However, after Kluivert did pull a goal back, Ajax scored three times in the final twenty minutes secure a famous win.

Poland

Former Naval midfielder Rui Miguel came on with less than ten minutes remaining as high-flying Zaglebie Lubin won 4-2 at Cracovia to move into second in the Polish First Division, just three points behind surprise leaders GKS Belchatow.

Romania

Antonio Semedo scored for the second week running as CFR Cluj moved into second place in the Romanian Liga after beating Juil 2-0 away from home. The forward was given a start after scoring last weekend, and opened the scoring on ten minutes, while Tony and Pedro Oliveira also started for Cluj.

Russia

Dynamo Moscow game themselves hope that they will enjoy a better season this term as they drew their second match of the new campaign, 1-1 with champions CSKA Moscow. Danny impressed for Dynamo, who narrowly avoided relegation last season, while Cicero was an unused substitute.

Fabio Felicio, who moved to Russia in January from Spanish side Real Sociedad, came on as a 59th minute substitute for Rubin Kazan as they lost 2-1 at Lokomotiv Moscow.

Scotland

Falkirk produced the surprise of the weekend in Scotland, beating champions Celtic 1-0 on Sunday. Pedro Moutinho came on as a second half substitute for Falkirk, while Vitor Lima watched from the bench.

Jose Goncalves made just his fifth league appearance of the season as Hearts were hammered 4-0 at home by Dundee United. Injury again kept fellow Portuguese Bruno Aguiar out for Hearts.

Switzerland

Roberto Pinto was in the Grasshoppers Zurich side that thrashed Luzern 5-0 in the Swiss Super League on Saturday. Carlitos was in the FC Sion side that won 1-0 at Schaffhausen, for whom Carlos da Silva played in midfield. Nelson Ferreira played the full ninety minutes for Thun in their 1-0 home defeat to FC Zurich.

Turkey

Portuguese midfielder Neca scored the opening goal for Konyaspor as the Green Lightnings held champions Galatasaray to a 2-2 draw at the Konya Ataturk Stadı. Konya stay in sixth place in the Turkcell Super Lig.

Star Performer

Neca (Konyaspor)

Neca has made a big impact in Turkey following his January loan switch from Maritimo, and the midfielder scored the opening goal and produced an impressive display as Konyaspor held champions Galatasaray to a 2-2 draw.

Earlier round-ups