Liga Portugal Betclic: Braga 6-1 Portimonense
Farense 2-0 Arouca
League Cup Group C: Sporting 4-2 Farense
Last Saturday night, Portimonense began their match in Braga well, Pedrão guiding home a Carlinhos corner as early as the 10th minute. Jasper and Maurício then enjoyed clear cut opportunities to increase the advantage, the latter blasting over from close range with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Unfortunately, the Algarveans appeared to have stayed in their dressing room after the interval as the hosts ran riot throughout the second half. Braga were level within three minutes of the restart, ahead through an Al-Musrati penalty after another five and 3-1 up within 15 minutes.
French forward Simon Banza then added a quick-fire hat-trick to leave manager Paulo Sérgio shaking his head in disbelief at his side’s sudden collapse. Portimonense, now in 11th place on 11 points, next face second from bottom Chaves at their Municipal Stadium this Saturday afternoon.
Last Monday night’s closing match day game in Faro was a much more straight forward affair. A hand ball and a foul committed by visiting bottom-of-the-table side Arouca during the first half were duly punished from the penalty spot by Mattheus Oliveira and Bruno Duarte, respectively, to arrive at the final scoreline early on during the encounter – not much else of note occurred thereafter. Next up for the newly-promoted club from the Algarve’s capital now in 9th place on 13 points is a visit to Boavista on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier last week, Farense proved much more sluggish out of the starting blocks when overrun by League Cup Group C opponents Sporting in Lisbon who emerged the 4-2 winners featuring a hat-trick from Swedish summer signing Viktor Gyökeres.
By SKIP BANDELE
