24 April 2006, by Sean Gillen

Portuguese Abroad round-up

Vaz Te opens Premiership account

In England Chelsea’s hopes of a Premiership and FA Cup double were ended by Liverpool at Old Trafford. Paulo Ferreira was selected as Jose Mourinho’s men lost 2-1.

In the Premiership, Ricardo Vaz Te scored his first league goal in English football as Bolton beat Charlton 4-1. Pedro Mendes was missing as Portsmouth edged closer to safety with a 2-1 win over Sunderland. Nuno Valente had not yet recovered from injury to take part in Everton’s 0-0 draw with Birmingham. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United did not play this weekend due to their opponents Middlesbrough still being involved in the FA Cup.

In La Liga, Barcelona’s match with Seville was abandoned due to bad weather, giving Deco’s side a rest before their Champions League semi-final second leg with Milan on Wednesday.

Bottom-placed Malaga were beating Real Madrid 1-0 at the Bernabeu with 25 minutes remaining, when Portuguese defender Litos was introduced and gave away a penalty. Zinedine Zidane scored from the spot and Real went on to win the game 2-1 after Edgar was also introduced for Malaga.

Miguel’s Valencia continued their fight with Real for second place with an impressive 3-0 win at Athletic Bilbao courtesy of a David Villa hat-trick.

In Italy, Inter are back on track after a 4-0 win over Reggina, with Luis Figo coming on for the last 10 minutes. With Milan resting players for the Champions League, Rui Costa played the full 90 minutes as the Rossoneri beat Messina 3-1. Jose Vidigal was subbed an hour into Udinese’s 1-1 draw with Chievo and Fernando Couto played the last 15 minutes of Parma’s 1-1 draw with Siena.

The only two games played in France this weekend saw Champions Lyon include Tiago as they lost 2-1 at Monaco while Bordeaux won 3-0 at Sochaux without defender Beto.

It was a disappointing week for the Portuguese contingent in Germany as Ricardo Sousa watched from the bench as Hanover were beaten by Kaiserslautern and Fernando Meira played as Stuttgart lost 2-0 at home to Frankfurt. Ze Antonio was in the Gladbach side that drew 2-2 with Hertha Berlin.

Hearts’ 2-1 loss at Hibernian saw Rangers cut their lead for a Champions League spot to five points with four games remaining. Bruno Aguiar played for Hearts but Jose Goncalves missed the game through injury.

Disappointment for Standard Liege as they lost their crucial match with title rivals Anderlecht, with Almani Moreira and Jorge Costa included in the starting line-up. The 2-0 defeat sees Standard lose their place at the top of the table and fall two points behind Anderlecht with two games left.

In Romania, Carlos kept goal as Steaua Bucharest beat Farul 3-0 to go top of the league on goal difference from Dinamo. Steaua have two games in hand over their city rivals.

Dinamo Moscow’s disastrous start to the season continued with a 1-0 loss at Kryliya Sovetov, which leaves them bottom of the table after 6 games. Danny played the full 90 minutes for Dinamo.

Star Performer

Ricardo Vaz Te

The 19-year-old forward scored his first Premiership goal for Bolton in their 4-1 win over Charlton as he enjoys a good run of appearances for the Trotters.

Earlier round-ups:
20/02/06 Star Performer - Miguel
27/02/06 Star Performer - Cristiano Ronaldo
06/03/06 Star Performer - Sergio Conceicao
13/03/06 Star Performer - Pedro Mendes
20/03/06 Star Performer - Luis Boa Morte
27/03/06 Star Performer - Fernando Couto
03/04/06 Star Performer - Pauleta
10/04/06 Star Performer - Jorge Costa
17/04/06 Star Performer - Luis Boa Morte