Gelson Martins and Rony Lopes were both on target as Leonardo Jardim’s revival of Monaco continued with an impressive 2-0 win over Lyon in Ligue 1 on Sunday. The Portuguese duo both struck inside the first half hour with outstanding individual goals as Jardim’s side made it 10 points from four games since his return as manager last month.
Elsewhere, Vítor Pereira’s Shanghai SIPG warmed up for the start of the new Chinese CSL season by beating Beijing Guoan 2-0 in the Super Cup. There was also a trophy for Bernardo Silva who lifted the Carabao Cup with Manchester City, while Vieirinha scored one of the goals of the season in Greece as PAOK battle for the title.
Gelson, Lopes the stars as Monaco upturn continues
Leonardo Jardim credited his side for securing “an important win” against Lyon, with the 2-0 victory at the Stade Louis II seeing Monaco open up a 5-point gap between themselves and the relegation zone. With Adrien Silva, Rony Lopes and Gelson Martins all starting, Monaco led 2-0 from the 27th minute and survived a second-half penalty miss from Lyon’s Memphis Depay.
“Tonight we had to win, we are in a situation that requires us to earn points,” Jardim said after the game. “This is a very important win, our team had a good match, there are a lot of positives in the mindset and in the game.
“Today the team played at a very good level. I want to give credit to my group. We played with high pressure. It worked very well and in the second half we controlled the game. Lyon could have scored but we also had opportunities.
“We are already thinking about the next game. We have to continue. We have played 4 games out of 16 in this mini championship, and our goal is to be at the top of France’s best teams, which is the case at the moment.”
Jardim’s cause has been greatly enhanced by the impact of January signing Gelson Martins, who joined on-loan from Atletico Madrid. The former Sporting man got the opener on Sunday with a beautifully placed shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area on 18 minutes, making it three goals in three games for the Portugal forward.
Rony Lopes doubled the home side’s advantage on 27 minutes with a perhaps even more memorable goal. The 23-year-old robbed possession just inside the Lyon half and embarked on a mazy run into the box before dispatching a low finish that evaded Portuguese Anthony Lopes in the Lyon goal.
The dropped points for Lyon allowed Lille to extend their advantage in the race for runners-up spot behind likely champions Paris Saint-Germain. Lille started Portuguese duo José Fonte and Rafael Leão as they earned a 1-1 draw at Strasbourg to move five points clear of Lyon. Rui Fonte, who has only played 15 minutes for Lille since early December, was named on the travelling substitutes bench.
Pereira lifts first trophy of new season
Vítor Pereira added the Chinese Super Cup to his growing collection of medals after his Shanghai SIPG side beat Beijing Guoan in the showpiece occasion in Jiangsu. Goals in the second half from Wang Shenchao and Lu Wenjun gave Shanghai the victory, ahead of the start of their defence of the CSL title next week.
"It was an amazing game," said Pereira. "We have added another championship to our names and most importantly, we set off the new season with a victory. It means a lot to us. I’m proud to coach the team.
“[The league opener] will be a difficult clash. But after coaching the team for a year, I know we can handle all these matches. Today we shall celebrate the Super Cup victory. Maybe from tomorrow I will start to prepare for the league match.”
Carabao Cup a big boost – Bernardo
Bernardo Silva collected his second English League Cup winners medal after Manchester City retained the Carabao Cup with a penalty shootout victory over Chelsea at Wembley. The teams played out a goalless draw over 120 minutes, meaning it was left to spot kicks to decide the outcome in the capital.
Bernardo dispatched his penalty as City won 4-3 in the shootout, and the Portuguese admitted Chelsea were tough opponents on the day. "We are very happy with the win," Bernardo said. "Another trophy for us, the second of the season, and hopefully more to come. It wasn’t easy, physically they were stronger than us. But we won another trophy.
"We played one of the best sides in the world. It’s a big boost for the rest of the season. The penalty? You just have to be confident, try and approach with a positive mind and if you score, you score; if you miss, you miss. But it’s important to be there to try it.”
Nuno pleased with players amidst penalty craze
Penalties were the order of the day as Nuno Espírito Santo’s Wolverhampton Wanderers drew 1-1 at Bournemouth in the Premier League. Both sides scored from the spot before Bournemouth missed the chance to win the game from 12 yards, with Portuguese duo João Moutinho and Ivan Cavaleiro the men penalised for fouls in the box for the visitors.
Nuno selected Portuguese quartet Rui Patrício, Rúben Neves, João Moutinho and Diogo Jota for the trip to the south coast, with Cavaleiro, Hélder Costa and Rúben Vinagre on the substitutes bench. Bournemouth led 1-0 at half time thanks to Joshua King’s penalty, which was awarded after Moutinho was adjudged to have tripped the Norwegian in the box.
Wolves levelled through on-loan Benfica striker Raul Jimenez, who scored from the spot with around eight minutes of normal time remaining. However, Bournemouth were given the chance to re-take the lead almost instantly when substitute Cavaleiro was penalised for a challenge on Ryan Fraser, with video replays suggesting any contact was made outside the box.
King failed to beat Patrício for a second time as his penalty struck the post, leaving Nuno to reflect on a turbulent afternoon of action. “I wouldn’t say it was bizarre; bizarre was too strong, I would say an emotional game, both teams were competitive, but both sets of players gave everything to try to win the game,” said the ex-Porto coach.
“I think both Bournemouth and us went for the game, there were chances and I think all the players were really committed in playing the game.
“The last ten minutes of the game was up and down, up and down, this shows the character that both teams had. We are never happy with a draw, we want to win the game, but sometimes it balances out – this is football.”
Vieirinha screamer for PAOK
Portuguese international Vieirinha was on the scoresheet as Greek Super League leaders PAOK were held to a 1-1 home draw by Aris on Sunday. The experienced midfielder put his side ahead with a sensational long-range shot five minutes before half time, finding the bottom corner with a low drive from well outside the penalty area.
The goal looked like giving PAOK another victory on their way to the Greek title, but Spaniard Fran Velez headed Aris level with five minutes left on the clock. The draw gave Pedro Martins’ Olympiakos the chance to reduce the gap at the top to seven points, which they duly did with a 5-1 hammering of OFI on Monday afternoon. Daniel Podence assisted two of the goals for Martins’ side.
"I'm definitely not satisfied with the result,” Vieirinha said after the match. “We knew Aris would not leave us spaces, we achieved the goal we were looking for, but in the end we could not keep the result for us. We relaxed with 1-0 and it is a lesson for us if we want to continue with victories.”
Also on the scoresheet this weekend was former Porto academy prospect Jucie Lupeta, who scored for Slovenian champions Olimpija in their 4-1 win at Krsko. The 25-year-old former Vitória Setúbal attacker has previously played in Hungary and South Africa during his career and joined Olimpija last summer after impressing at fellow Slovenian side Celje.
Cardoso: “The team reacted”
In Spain, Miguel Cardoso’s Celta Vigo recovered from last weekend’s disastrous 4-1 home defeat to Levante by earning a 0-0 draw at 6th placed Alaves on Saturday. The draw sees Cardoso’s side gain a point advantage over Villarreal in their battle to avoid the relegation places and is a much-needed result for the Portuguese boss.
“After the last match, where we did not play well at all, the team was able to react, get together and, most importantly, compete very well,” Cardoso said. “We read the different moments of the match well and that’s why we managed to finish with a goalless draw.
“We came out stronger because everyone has seen the team’s attitude in very difficult emotional conditions. That proves that the boys work very seriously. Only the dead don’t fight.”
Elsewhere in the Spanish top flight, André Silva was dropped to the bench by Sevilla for their big match with Barcelona at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. The Portuguese striker watched the whole ninety minutes from the sidelines as the Andalusians gave up a 2-1 lead to lose 4-2 to a Barcelona inspired by Lionel Messi’s hat-trick.
Portuguese bosses
Finishing on the managerial front, this weekend represented another damaging matchday for Ricardo Sá Pinto in Poland. The Portuguese boss saw his Legia Warsaw side lose their second consecutive match in the Ekstraklasa, going down 2-0 to Lech Poznan with André Martins, Cafú, Salvador Agna and Iuri Medeiros all involved. As a result, Legia slip seven points behind leaders Lechia Gdanzk, who had Flávio Paixão up front as they beat Wisla Krakow 1-0.
In Mexico, Pedro Caixinha is six matches without a win with Cruz Azul after a 1-1 draw at Veracruz which leaves them 14th in the Liga MX Clausura standings. Tony Conceição lost his job with Romanians CFL Cluj during the week despite leading the table, and without him the champions needed a stoppage-time goal to win 1-0 at Politehnica Iasi.
In Saudi Arabia, Rui Vitória is on a run of four wins in a row with Al Nassr after a 1-0 victory over Al Feiha saw them stay six points behind leaders Al Hilal. In the same league, Pedro Emanuel’s Al Taawon moved up to 4th with a 4-1 win over Al Batin. In Qatar, Jesualdo Ferreira’s Al Sadd still lead the way after hammering 4th place Al Rayyan 4-0, while Rui Faria’s Al Duhail are proving hard to break down, following their 1-0 win over Al Sailiya last week with a 0-0 draw at Al Gharafa.
Finally to India, where Paulo Machado got an assist to help Jorge Costa’s Mumbai City to a 3-1 win at ATK. The victory was much-needed for Costa’s men, who had lost three consecutive matches after a strong first half of the season, but now find themselves back in contention with just a 4-point gap to leaders Bengaluru.
By Sean Gillen
