ALLIANZ LEAGUE CUP:
0-0 (5-4) Portimonense
Farense 3-2 Oliveirense
The Allianz Portuguese League Cup second round saw Farense progress to the competition’s group phase whilst Portimonense headed for an early exit.
Last Saturday evening at the São Luís stadium in Faro, the newly promoted club from the Algarve’s capital went into the half-time break with a comfortable lead thanks to goals from Marco Matias, Rui Costa and Mattheus Oliveira. But the match proved far from over as second division Oliveirense came storming back with two strikes of their own within 15 minutes of the restart to set up a tense final half hour which did not alter the score line and thus sent Farense through.
In contrast, Portimonense’s Sunday morning away tie at Leixões featured very little in the way of goal mouth action until the very end. Manager Paulo Sérgio, still serving a touchline ban incurred last season, made several changes to the starting 11 successful during the last round, rendering the team mostly ineffective. Despite Leixões’ best efforts to win the game in normal time, the goalless encounter was decided on a penalty shoot-out which saw ‘specialist’ spot kick keeper Stefanovic shine with two stops for the second match in succession to ensure Leixões’ progression.
Portimonense and Farense will meet for what will be both sides last pre-season friendly on Saturday morning – before then, Farense will have played José Mourinho’s Roma for the newly created ‘Hassan Trophy’ on Wednesday at 7.45pm at their São Luís stadium.
