The second round of Primeira Liga matches produced several surprise results, with Sporting and FC Porto drawing 1-1 against Paços de Ferreira and Marítimo respectively on Saturday.
Benfica failed to take advantage on Sunday night as the Eagles fell to a 1-0 defeat at Arouca. The result puts Lito Vidigal’s team on top of the league. After just two rounds of matches, Arouca are the only team with a 100% winning record.
PortuGOAL rounds up the weekend action.
Rio Ave 1-0 Braga
Week 2 of Liga NOS action kicked off on Friday evening when Braga visited Vila do Conde to take on Rio Ave. Os Arsenalistas were keen to build on their 2-1 win over Nacional in the opening game of the season, while Rio Ave had drawn their opener 3-3 in the capital with Belenenses.
It was the hosts who made the early running in a first half that was not that memorable or testing for either ‘keeper. However, a superb in-swinging free-kick by Bressan found the head of Egyptian striker Hassan, who had a free header and powered the ball past Kritciuk in the Braga goal to seal all 3 points for Rio Ave. Braga did attempt to turn the screw in the second half, Luiz Carlos pulling the strings in the middle, but ultimately a lack of cutting edge in the final third cost Os Arsenalistas. Román forced Cássio to tip a shot onto the bar but that was as close as they could ultimately manage.
The one blemish on Rio Ave’s performance was the sending off of centre-back, Nélson Monte, in the 53rd minute.
Sporting 1-1 Paços de Ferreira
Sporting were the early Saturday evening kick-off and were looking to build on their opening day win at Tondela, when they took on Paços de Ferreira. Despite Paços coming close in the opening minutes, Sporting looked to be on the right track when Carrillo gave them a 41st minute lead from a Bryan Ruiz cross. The Costa Rican may have had his critics in English football but he’s settled into life in Portugal very quickly.
Despite enjoying the lion’s share of possession, Sporting were unable to turn that into chances and both sides traded blows - Alberto Aquilani making his league debut for Sporting.
The drama came in the 79th minute when João Pereira was sent off for bringing down Cícero in the box. Pelé, the midfielder on loan from Benfica who enjoyed an excellent match, dispatched the resulting spot kick with aplomb and earned the northerners an impressive point.
Marítimo 1-1 Porto
Following Sporting’s slip up at home earlier on Saturday evening, Porto were hoping to put some early distance between the two sides. However, not having beaten Marítimo on their own patch for the last 4 seasons, Portistas could be forgiven for being nervous.
They got off to the worst possible start in Funchal when Edgar Costa gave the Madeirans a 1-0 lead on 5 minutes with a free-header at the back post. Cissokho completely missed the cross and Casillas was left powerless from close range.
Porto drew level on 34 minutes, however, when Brahimi and Imbula combined to tee up Herrera to fire home from close range past Salin.
Both sides had chances in the 2nd half, none more so than Maxi Pereira who hit the crossbar right at the end of the 4 minutes of injury time! With Salin beaten all ends up, it was left to the woodwork to save Marítimo and to give them a well-earned point which was a fair reflection of the game. Last week’s hero, Aboubakar, was replaced by Dani Osvaldo on 79 minutes after a much quieter game, in no small measure because of Marítimo’s Brazilian centre-back pairing of Deyvidson and Raul Silva who performed stoically throughout.
Arouca 1-0 Benfica
Benfica travelled to Aveiro to take on Arouca who switched the game from their Estádio Municipal de Arouca to the larger Estádio Municipal de Aveiro. And a sell-out crowd were treated to a game packed full of incident and chances as Arouca took all three points with a 1-0 win on Sunday night.
Roberto’s 2nd-minute goal proved to be the difference between the two sides, and the striker made a nuisance of himself to Luisão and Lisandro López until he was replaced on 74 minutes. Indeed, Benfica had Júlio César to thank for making at least three superb saves to keep them in the game.
Rui Vitória and all Benfiquistas will be wondering how this game got away from them though. The Lisbon club had 65% of possession and a staggering 19 efforts on goal to Arouca’s 7. Ola John, Jonas, Pizzi, Gaitán, Mitroglou and second-half substitute Raúl Jiménez all had efforts on goal. When on target, they usually found Arouca’s Brazilian goalkeeper Rafael Bracali in the way as the shot-stopper put in a Man of the Match performance for the home side.
And so, even with 5 minutes of injury time, Benfica were unable to breach Lito Vidigal’s defence. On the plus side, Benfica are in good company with Porto and Sporting both dropping points this weekend. Arouca go top with maximum points following on from their 2-0 defeat of Moreirense last weekend.
Nacional 1-0 União Madeira
Liga NOS newcomers União Madeira played their second derby in as many weeks as they made the short trip to Nacional. Having beaten Marítimo 2-1 in their opening game last weekend, Norton de Matos’ side were not able to replicate that form and went down by a solitary goal. Francisco Soares sealed the points on 40 minutes to give Nacional their first points of the season.
Boavista 1-0 CD Tondela
In Porto, Boavista made a welcome return to the Estádio do Bessa to take on another Liga NOS newcomer, CD Tondela. Vítor Paneira’s side opened their campaign last weekend at home to Sporting, narrowly losing out to a late penalty 2-1. However, Luisinho’s goal on 47 minutes was the difference between the two sides in a game which saw Lucas Souza sent off on 62 minutes for Tondela. The result leaves Tondela pointless from their opening 2 games and Boavista with a comfortable 4 points following last week’s 2-2 draw at Setúbal.
Vitória Guimarães 1-1 Belenenses
Vitória Guimarães hosted Belenenses on Sunday evening. Extremely wet conditions clearly had an effect in a game that was devoid of chances until Ricardo Valente fired home from close range for the hosts on 19 minutes. Fábio Sturgeon equalised for Belenenses in the 75th minute to give the Lisbon club a second successive draw. Overall, Ricardo Sá Pinto will be satisfied with how his team have coped with European and domestic competition in a short space of time.
Estoril 2-0 Moreirense
Estoril responded to their 4-0 drubbing at Benfica last Sunday with an impressive 2-0 win at home to Moreirense. Goals by Gerso and Léo Bonatini were enough to give the Cascais side the points and move them up to 11th in the Liga NOS. Even more impressive for Estoril was the fact they lost Brazilian forward, Sebá, during the week to Olympiakos in Greece. The forward put in a sterling performance at the Estadio da Luz last weekend but Fabiano Soares replaced him with Bruno César this week. The loss also means Moreirense are pointless after two games and prop up the table.
Monday - Académica v Vitória Setúbal
By Paul Gellard
