by Sao Miguel in the Azores, where I enjoyed a small but very pleasant
vacation - made even more pleasant after
watching Sporting play and beat local team Santa Clara :-) )
Santa Clara 0
Sporting 3 (Jardel 72 pen; Barbosa 79; Paulo Bento 90)
Att: 12000
Sporting dominated the match, Phil Babb hit the post in the first half, but
it took a late non-existent penalty to materialize the leaders' superiority.
Substitute Cesar Prates recieved the ball from his keeper, ran some 60
meters and was defenitely fouled - but just outside Santa Clara's box. The
refree,
however, judged the incident worthy of a spot kick, allowing Jardel to score
his 31st goal of the
season.
Seven minutes later, Joao Pinto assisted Pedro Barbosa for Sporting's
second, with the captain concluding the move with a powerful but well-placed
shot from outside the area.
Sporting's third and last goal was an almost exact copy of the second, with
Joao Pinto assisting to the frontal zone and this time Paulo
Bento concluded the move.
Braga 0
Boavista 2 (Duda 25; Artur Jorge 70 og)
Att: 6500
Answering the critics of Boavista's playing style, manager Jaime Pacheco
said during last week that if his team played 'pretty football' they would
probably be sixth or seventh by now and not challenging for a second title
in a row as it's currently happening.
Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, as another poor match served
only to highlight the efficiency of the champions.
Duda opened the score after 25 minutes. Petit crossed from the right, Braga
center-backs Artur Jorge and Ricardo Rocha crashed into each other leaving
the brazilian striker alone to for an easy goal.
More misery for Braga in the second half after a cross from the right by
Bosingwa. This time Artur Jorge arrived ahead of the Boavista forwards...
but only to shoot the ball into his own net!
Braga still hit the crossbar from 25 yards through Castanheira but apart
from that exception, they never seemed able of piercing through Boavista's
renowned defence.
Belenenses 3 (Verona 27; Peixoto 77; Cafu 90)
FC Porto 0
Att: 9000
Champions League 'habitus' Porto are being dragged into an unwanted battle
with Benfica to secure a UEFA Cup spot next season after another defeat.
Brazilian winger Verona got ahead of Vitor Baia in a corner to score the
first for the home side. Porto were unrecognizable that evening and suffered
the second goal in the counter-attack from a splendid 30 yard shot by
youngster Cesar Peixoto.
Nightmare for Porto was concluded when Vitor Baia failed to clear a back
pass and lost the ball to Cafu, who only had to push it gently into the
empty goal.
Gil Vicente 0
Benfica 2 (Argel 3; Drulovic 20)
Att: 3500
A deserved win for Benfica. RSS favourite Arglico ***s (a.k.a Argel)
headed in a free-kick from the left from Simao, giving Benfica an early
lead.
With just 20 minutes gone the second goal arrived. Man-of-the-match Sim?o
dazzed through three Gil Vicente defenders and laid a perfect pass for
Ljubinko Drulovic to conclude with an easy shot in the keeper area.
Simao is single-handedly keeping the pieces together at an otherwise
crumbling team and this win, coupled with Porto's defeat, gave Benfica mew
hope of avoiding a second season in a row without European football.
Other results
Leiria 0
Vit. Setubal 0
Att: 3000
Vit. Guimaraes 1 (Cleber 25)
Maritimo 3 (Gaucho 35; Dinda 75; Kenedy 88)
Att: 6000
Pa?os Ferreira 6 (Leonardo 13; Mauro 41; Srgio 53; Pedrinha 72 pen; Ze
Manuel 74; Carneiro 85)
Salgueiros 0
Att: 3000
Alverca 2 (Quinzinho 75; Vargas 77)
Beira Mar 0
Att: 4000
Farense 1 (Patrick 27)
Varzim 1 (Prokopenko 34)
Att: 5500
Table
P W D L F A P
1 Sporting 26 17 6 3 57 20 57
2 Boavista 26 17 5 4 42 14 56
3 FC Porto 26 15 3 8 46 28 48
4 Benfica 26 13 9 4 47 30 48
5 Martimo 26 13 3 10 36 27 42
6 Uni?o Leiria 26 11 8 7 39 27 41
7 Belenenses 26 12 5 9 39 35 41
8 Vit. Guimar?es 26 10 7 9 28 25 37
9 Pa?os Ferreira 26 9 9 8 36 34 36
10 Santa Clara 26 9 7 10 25 32 34
11 Braga 26 8 9 9 30 25 33
12 Beira Mar 26 7 7 12 38 46 28
13 Vit. Setbal 26 6 8 12 27 32 26
14 Salgueiros 26 6 6 14 21 55 24
15 Varzim 26 6 6 14 22 46 24
----------------------------------------
16 Gil Vicente 25 6 6 13 23 40 24
17 Alverca 25 6 4 15 27 47 22
18 Farense 26 5 6 15 20 40 21
Top scorers
1. Jardel (Sporting) 31 goals
2. Derlei (Leiria) 17 goals
3. Fary (Beira Mar) 14 goals
Pedro