Tondela pulled off a final day relegation escape act to maintain their top flight status for another season. It’s becoming something of a custom for the Viseu-based side, saving their salvation right to the very end for the fourth time in the last five seasons in Portugal.
What follows is the story of how the Primeira Liga’s very own Houdini act repeated the trick time and time again.
2015/16
Portuguese manager Quim Machado had guided Tondela to the second tier title in 2014/15 to ensure they would play in the top flight for the first time in the club’s history. This rookie status, combined with a mass turnover in the playing staff as well as a change in coach to see Vítor Paneira take charge, meant that the Auriverdes were considered strong favourites to make a swift return to Segunda Liga come May.
For much of the season, performances and results on the pitch did little to dispel this prediction. With seven league matches remaining in the campaign, Tondela had amassed just three victories and looked dead certs for the drop. A mid-season change in management to bring Petit in initially looked an unsuccessful one but the former seleção international eventually managed to turn the tide in spectacular fashion, in what should have been a daunting trip to Estádio do Dragão to face Porto.
Not for the first time in recent memory, Tondela confounded all expectations and came away from the match with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Luís Alberto goal, and never looked back in their quest for survival. A superb 4-1 triumph away at then-Europa League challengers Paços Ferreira set Tondela up for a last day great escape and they duly obliged, consigning their opponents Academica to go down instead by beating them 2-0 and scrape to survival by just a point.
Player of the season: Cláudio Ramos
Having just now departed as a club legend, Ramos didn’t have the number one shirt all to himself during this campaign but was between the sticks for the late season revival. A stunning turn in a late February win over Moreirense cemented his place, and incredible performances including during the aforementioned Porto win put him on the Liga NOS map.
2016/17
Another summer of player overhaul left Petit, unsurprisingly earning another season in charge, with the tricky job of maintaining 2015/16’s late momentum. Quite predictably, this proved too difficult a task and just two league wins by early January cost the manager his job and left the relegation writing on the wall once more.
Enter young Portuguese coach Pepa, tasked with working a miracle so early on in his management career at only 35. In intriguingly similar fashion, the team found themselves almost in the exact same predicament in the run-in as like Petit before him, Pepa was struggling to have an effect on Tondela. Once again they were left with only three wins but this time around just six matches remained in the campaign.
What followed was an even more impressive turnaround as Tondela won five of those remaining six games. Their penultimate contest of the season in some ways proved even more pivotal than the last, a 2-1 win away at Arouca would level the pair’s head to head record and give Tondela a chance at a dramatic rescue again. It was by no means an easy task ahead of them, facing a Braga side that admittedly were not at their finest in a disappointing turn from Gverreiros.
Still, Tondela did their bit with a 2-0 win, dropping Arouca to the second tier instead by the absolute narrowest of margins as goal difference was used to split the pair (thanks to their now level head to head), Tondela the superior by just one strike.
Player of the season: Cláudio Ramos
Simply cannot look past the goalkeeper again who through another difficult campaign for the team managed to pull off miraculous saves when it mattered most. This was the season that put him on the international radar, and he’d earn a callup the following year in which he excelled once more.
2018/19
2017/18 saw Tondela positively saunter to Liga NOS survival as manager Pepa kept his job and improved the team massively to an 11th place finish. Choppy waters would be sailed into the following season though, although an inconsistent start was followed by impressive winter wins over Sporting and Vitória Guimarães, and in general the picture did not appear too bleak as Spring approached.
However only two victories followed the Guimarães triumph and Tondela began to slip back towards that familiar trap door. Veteran Ricardo Costa’s ill discipline was proving costly, as was a goal-shy attack. Matchday 33 saw the team faced with a taxing trip to Sporting but a battling 1-1 draw left their destiny in their own hands for the final day that followed, hosting fellow relegation candidates Chaves.
Estádio João Cardoso would host a quite extraordinary match even by Tondela’s dramatic standards. The home fans could scarcely have dreamed of a better start as Pepa’s side found themselves 4-0 up after just 28 minutes, with Venezuelan winger Jhon Murillo in brilliant form. Not a team to want to do things too easily, Chaves pulled two goals back before the break to bring Tondela back down to earth.
However, Tondela managed to close out the second half with a minimum of fuss, even adding a fifth goal to eventually beat the drop by a gargantuan, by Tondela standards, three points. An even more tricky escape this one in many regards, not least due to the fact that the Primeira Liga was relegating three teams rather than the usual two to accommodate the return of Gil Vicente for the following season.
Player of the season: António Tomané
Ramos was sensational again but Portuguese striker Tomané led from the front superbly. A terrifically hard-working forward, he has never traditionally been known for his goal output but 12 league strikes for a team of this level was a particularly laudable return, and his joint-best addition of six assists showed what a team player he was through the season.
2019/20
Another summer of change saw a different direction from the board in the sense of hiring Spaniard Natxo González for his first job outside of his native country. In typical Tondela fashion, the early season results lacked consistency and at times logic as the coach’s tactical tinkerings did not always pay off.
Ultimately though the manager followed his predecessors in the sense of reserving the team’s very best form for the final two matches of the season. Again on paper the contests represented tricky ones, facing Braga at home followed up by a last day trip to Moreirense.
One goal victories in the pair propelled Tondela out of danger and into Liga NOS 2020/21, where chances are there will be more drama to endure and enjoy.
Player of the season: Pepelu
González’s countryman was one of the few players to nail down a regular role in the XI and completely deservedly so. Aptly the Spaniard scored the final goal of Tondela’s season, in which dictated the play so often with a wide range of passing, looking entirely at home at this level having been signed on loan from La Liga side Levante. Unsurprisingly he has been recalled, his parent club won’t have been the only ones impressed by the 21 year old who looks to have a bright future.
By Jamie Farr
