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Sunday, 25 September 2011 20:27 |
Liga round-up: Maritimo into 4th
Wins for Olhanense and Gil Vicente, goalless in Aveiro
 Sunday's four Liga matches saw Maritimo climb above Sporting into 4th spot, after a brace from Danilo Dias was enough to see off Guimaraes. 2-1 was the final score in Funchal. Elsewhere, there were wins for Olhanense (2-1 at home to Leiria) and Gil Vicente (2-1 at Pacos), whilst Rio Ave stopped a run of four consecutive defeats as they held Beira-Mar to a 0-0 draw.
Maritimo 2-1 Vitoria de Guimaraes
Maritimo made it four wins on the bounce at home to Guimaraes, climbing above Sporting and into 4th spot as a result. The Madeira club allowed their opponents back into the game when they should have been out of sight, but it was nevertheless an impressive display from Pedro Martins’ men, who increasingly look to be real contenders for a European spot this season.
The opener came early on. Olberdam’s through ball sprung the Guimaraes offside trap, releasing Danilo Dias, who hared down on goal before crashing a fierce strike beyond Nilson. The goal sent Guimaraes into a funk that lasted for the remainder of the half. Rui Vitoria opted for an offensive-minded 4-2-3-1 formation, but his men were unable to produce much in the way of fluent play, and were fortunate not to be further behind at the interval. Maritimo’s front three of Dias, Baba and Sami caused problems throughout the game with their incisive running and interchanging.
The latter rattled the crossbar five minutes after the re-start, with Nilson stranded, but the Guimaraes goalkeeper sprung into action to deny Olberdam on the rebound. The away side slowly grew into the game, and began to trouble Maritimo, particularly from set pieces. A sense that Maritimo would be made to pay for not capitalising on their dominance grew, particularly when Baba was sent clean through but shot too close to Nilson’s outstretched leg.
 The scores were levelled in the 72nd minute, Freire tapping home from close range after Pecanha parried Joao Paulo’s header directly into the path of his defensive partner. Stung, Maritimo went up the other end and restored their lead almost instantly. Ruben Ferreira’s long throw was flicked on to Dias, who struck a laser-guided effort into the back of the net from just inside the area. Pedro Martins (pictured) remained impassive, but will surely have been inwardly delighted.
The final quarter of an hour was frenetic to say the least, with both sides committing bodies forward in search of another goal. The crescendo came with two minutes remaining, when first Joao Paulo then Maranhao struck the right and left posts respectively. It was a desperately unlucky moment for Guimaraes, but in truth their often-listless performance (compared with Maritimo’s bright, inventive display) hardly merited the point.
Pacos de Ferreira 1-2 Gil Vicente
 Paulo Alves’ men came from behind for an impressive win at the Mata Real, handing new Pacos coach Luis Miguel a second consecutive loss. Os Castores got off to the perfect start on six minutes, when Benfica loanee Lorenzo Melgarejo put them ahead, but Laionel equalised for the away side on the stroke of half time.
As the hour mark approached the game was finely balanced; but it all fell apart for Pacos in just over two minutes. Melgarejo’s fellow loanee Fabio Faria was shown a straight red card after fouling Hugo Vieira, and then Claudio converted the subsequent spot kick to give Gil their first away win of the season.
Olhanense 2-1 Uniao de Leiria
After a surprising loss at the hands of Feirense in round four, Olhanense got their home form back on track with a 2-1 victory over Leiria, marred by a worrying incident which saw young forward Salvador Agra leave the stadium in an ambulance after being knocked unconscious in an aerial tussle with Edson.
Wilson Eduardo put the home side ahead with his second goal in as many games, before the injury to Agra delayed half time by around five minutes (early reports indicate that Agra regained consciousness soon after being stretchered off). His replacement, Figueroa, doubled Olhanense’ lead soon after the restart, and a late effort from Diego Gaucho wasn’t enough to drag Leiria back into the game. The win sees Olhanense climb to 7th, Leiria remain in the relegation zone.
Beira-Mar 0-0 Rio Ave
Both Beira-Mar and Rio Ave halted losing streaks (of two and four games respectively) in a fairly uneventful encounter at the Estadio Municipal de Aveiro. Serginho saw red for the home side during injury time. The result leaves Beira-Mar in 10th, whilst Rio Ave remain rooted to the bottom.
Ben Shave
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Their run of good form should continue, with non scoring Feirense on the road and equally inept Setubal back home.
Can I get a oh yeah for Gil Vicente. down early on the road, but the never die attitude gets through. They are fun to watch. Laionel is going to bring Gremio some money, sooner than later.
Leiria's season is going as expected. They can change managers as often as they like, but nothing will change until there's a change up top. Aren't João Bartolomeu (SAD) e Mario Xavier Cruz (CLUBE) the two guys that pissed off Leiria so much that they are now playing in Marinha Grande? I have a feeling they aren't the most equiped to make managerial decisions. In all actuallity, shouldn't they be held accountable for the poor choices?
If they are newly appointed, I apologize for ripping them, then again they are proving to be inept.
The most impressive thing for me about the Beira Mar vs Rio Ave game is that they were able to draw 2,148. The Sporting match has inflated their total, but drawing over 2,000 for Rio Ave and over 2,500 for Leiria is impressive.
I've sceptic, but Academica has a nice bounce back. Maybe most impressive about them is not only the 12 goals but the +5 to go with it.
Let's see if they can nab something at home vs Porto next weekend. Porto will coming off a tough CL match at Zenit.
I'll be a Estudante that day.
Let me add a great job by Sporting and Braga. Sporting is beginning to put it together, and Braga just continues to impress.
All kudos to Porto and Benfica to putting on a nice show. I would also like to say thank you for the fans for leaving the projectiles at home for this one.
Vitor Pontes lasted 19 days.... How long will Cajuda last? Well we have lots of Brazilians.. might as well have a Brazilian manager merry-go-round..
I will admit i was worried when we lost Djalma and Alonso was asked to leave but Sami and Ruben have just stepped up to the plate very well, we have such a great youth system and though i can be critical of Pedro Martins (always believed Van der Gaag was better) he does know how to bring in the youngsters and get them confident.
While im obviously not getting carried away i've always believed that based on squads in the last few years the pecking order was Porto, Benfica, Sporting, Braga, Guimaraes then Maritimo now obviously thats not for every year as things change but generally its close to that so i always expect at the least Maritimo should make 6th and a european spot.
This year Maritimo have shown me they can make 4th or 5th, and thats why i needed after how bad last year went.