29 August 2006, by Marco Pereira

Honours even as Academica hold Setubal

Setubal 1-1 Academica

Setubal and Academica closed off the first round of the Bwin Liga with a 1-1 draw.

The first half proved to be lifeless as neither club produced any clear chances on goal and went into the break locked at 0-0. The second half was the antithesis of the first as Setubal did not hang around to get on the scoreboard.

Nandinho did the honours by taking a beautiful free kick in the 47th minute. The ball hit the underside of the crossbar and fell behind Academica goalkeeper, Pedro Roma, making it 1-0.

This awoke Academica as The Students roared back with the leveller 10 minutes later.

The goal resulted from another dead ball situation when Roberto Brum knocked the ball into Setubal’s 18 yard box, and the unmarked Helder Barbosa met it sweetly and ripped it into the back of the net.

Not much else happened until Academica defender, Litos, received his marching orders after collecting his second yellow card of the half.

Setubal coach, Helio Sousa, was pleased with his team’s efforts, but was left to rue his team’s lack of finishing.

“It was an excellent game, but we were unlucky in our finishing. Other than that, I am totally satisfied with my players’ attitudes.”

Academica coach, Manuel Machado, was content with his pupils and recognised that Setubal had the better chances, but still felt his team deserved the point and was pleased with how his squad executed the strategy that he had given them.

“My team’s level of containment was really good as we allowed our opponents only two or three goal-scoring opportunities, from dead ball situations. Our counter-attacking was better in the second half when Gelson and Nelson Alvarez entered the game, also because some players were tired in the first half.”

Machado admits that his team is not yet where he would like them to be, but feels that things will get better as the season rolls on.

“We’re a bit behind in the constitution of the team. For example, we had two new players (Pavlovic and Miguel Pedro), who played and only arrived last week, but everything will work itself out and I know the team will get much better.”

Setubal:
Marco Tabuas, Janicio, Hugo, Auri, Nandinho (Adalto, 79), Sandro, Binho, Marcelo Labarthe, Ademar (Mbamba, 70), Varela, Lourenco (Amuneke, 66)

Academica:
Pedro Roma, Nuno Piloto, Mederios, Litos, Lino, Roberto Brum, Milos Pavlovic (Gelson, 46), Alexandre, Raul Estevez (Filipe Teixeira, 83), Miguel Pedro (Nelson Alvarez, 48), Helder Barbosa

Goals:
[1-0] Nandinho, 47
[1-1] Helder Barbosa, 57