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| Thursday, 03 November 2011 22:04 |
Braga 5-1 MariborArsenalistas cruise to victory Braga became the only Portuguese side this week to pick up maximum points in Europe tonight, with a 5-1 home demolition of Maribor. Lima and Alan’s early efforts put the Arsenalistas 2-0 up with only seven minutes on the clock, Elderson added another before half time, and although Volas pulled one back for the away side, Paulo Vinicius and Fran Merida added the gloss late on.
Leonardo Jardim named an unchanged line-up from the reverse fixture three weeks ago, with Mossoro replacing Nuno Gomes in the attacking midfield role. Maribor, whose delegation to Portugal was headed by former Guimaraes, Porto and Benfica midfielder Zlatko Zahovic, entered the tie on the back of a 2-2 draw with fierce rivals Olimpija.  Right from the off, the home side moved the ball around with a purpose and fluency that had been sorely lacking against Academica at the weekend. An opening goal seemed inevitable, and sure enough it arrived with four minutes on the clock. A horrendous piece of handling from Maribor goalkeeper Jasmin Handanovic saw the ball dropped right at Lima’s left foot, and the Brazilian tapped home from close range. Three minutes later, it got even better for the hardy few at a sodden Estadio AXA, who were treated to a delightful goal from Alan. Elderson, a regular down by the Maribor corner flag during the first half, found himself in space out wide and cut a pass back for his captain on the edge of the box. Alan, who was equally poorly attended-to by the Slovenian back line, deftly sidestepped a solitary tackle before curling a gorgeous effort beyond the despairing dive of Handanovic. With the contest essentially over before the ten-minute mark, Braga turned the night into a training exercise. Maribor were not entirely broken, but their raids forward were few and far between, and only a poor header from Paulo Vinicius and an acrobatic stop from Handanovic to deny Hugo Viana kept it at 2-0.  But the veteran goalkeeper, who oscillated between outstanding and eye watering with entertaining frequency throughout the evening, could not hold back the tide alone. Another dose of lax marking at a set piece allowed Lima to head back across goal from Alan’s corner, and Elderson (who netted the equaliser in Slovenia) nodded in from virtually on the goal line. Unsurprisingly given the margin of Braga’s advantage, the second half ambled along without much in the way of incident – until Maribor struck against the run of play on sixty-two minutes. A well-worked move concluded with Volas slipping in ahead of Baiano to side-foot beyond Quim from close range. Moments later the lively Ibraimi rattled the crossbar with a peach of a free kick, but Braga re-established their control without too much trouble. The remainder of the encounter passed without much in the way of action, though the crowd’s slumber was awoken with five minutes remaining, when Paulo Vinicius atoned for his earlier miss; leaping above two markers to power home a header at the near post – Alan the provider once again. Substitute Fran Merida applied the coup de grace in stoppage time, squeezing a close range shot in at the far post, after Handanovic failed to clear Paulo Cesar’s ball in. The victory, combined with Birmingham City snatching a 2-2 draw at home to Club Brugge (having been 2-0 down at half time) leaves Braga locked on seven points together with their English and Belgian adversaries, whom they will face on November 30th and December 15th respectively. Goals [1-0] Lima 4’ [2-0] Alan 7’ [3-0] Elderson 38’ [1-3] Volas 62’ [4-1] Paulo Vinicius 85’ [5-1] Merida 90’ Braga: Quim; Baiano, Paulo Vinicius, Ewerton, Elderson; Djamal, Hugo Viana (Merida 86’); Alan, Mossoro (Leandro Salino 65’), Helder Barbosa (Paulo Cesar 78’); Lima. Ben Shave |
Also after a slow start to the year its good to see Alan has been stepping it up lately.
Looking at latest performance, I wouldn't be surprised if Braga wins against Benfica this weekend.