Portugal is one of the most unequal countries in the world, where the rich are obscene and the poor have to survive on a minimum wage of €450 a month.
Nowhere is this inequality more evident than in the Liga Sagres, with the top teams playing in state of the art 50,000 seater stadia while the league’s lower sides play at grounds that would barely pass muster in the conference.
Estrela Amdora’s Estádio José Gomes reputedly holds 12,000, but it doesn’t look like it could and it very rarely holds more than 1,000. Even this weekend’s local derby with Benfica saw only 3,000 fans show up, a piss poor figure considering the grounds are only about two kilometres apart.
Estrela Amadora 1- 2 Benfica
The Amadora team didn’t train in the build-up to this match in protest at not having been paid, although their sterling second half performance defied this.
Benfica took an early lead through an Oscar Cardozo penalty after referee Hugo Miguel wrongly adjudged Ney Santos to have tripped Nuno Gomes inside the box, rather than two yards outside it.
After 15 minutes Benfica extended their lead through another Oscar Cardozo penalty after a blatant handball by Vidigal.
That might sound nice, but the not so O Glorioso haven’t scored from open play for a month now and on the evidence of this match they don’t look like doing so any time soon.
Hugo Miguel then denied Amadora a penalty after a more than clear handball by David Luiz. He made up for it though by giving them a penalty after Hassan Yebda appeared to do little more than touch Nuno André.
Varela duly put the spot kick away and both sections of the meagre crowd rewarded Mr Miguel by chanting “palhaço”, the Portuguese word for “clown”, at him for the remainder of the game. If anyone deserved to be humiliatingly sprayed by the ground’s sprinklers it was him, not the shabby band of Liga Sagres cheerleaders performing at the beginning of the match.
Amadora completely bossed the second half with Moreno and substitute Celestinho terrorising the Benfica defence but not quite able to find the net. There seems to be enough talent at the club to suggest their money troubles may be ameliorated come the summer, with the likes of Anselmo, Varela and the aforementioned Moreno and Celestinho all likely to attract the interest of some of the bigger Portuguese clubs.
Benfica could do worse than snap up a couple of them as they currently look about as potent as a 78 year old man after a bottle of whiskey and a box of aspirin. Strikers are their main shortfall with Nuno Gomes too old, David Suazo too injured and shit, and Oscar Cardozo too lanky and uncoordinated.
Go away
There were a whopping four more away wins this week. Here’s where they came.
Leixões 0-1 Sporting
Old man Derlei got the only goal of a drab and dirty game and must be starting to think about postponing his retirement.
Miguel Veloso finally got on the pitch for Sporting after an injury to Romagnioli. If he’s done anything over the last three months he’s put on a bit of weight and broken the world record for the highest ratio of hair gel to hair found on one person’s head.
Leixões meanwhile can take pride in fielding the most hilarious names of the weekend, if not in winning just one of their last 14 games.
Elvis, Bruno China and Chumbinho all made fairly forgettable appearances for a side that must wish the season had finished in December.
Guimarães 1 – 3 Porto
The Dragons fielded a weakened side in preparation for tonight’s big one with Man United and consequently found themselves one down at half time. Some unusually slack defending let Roberto tuck one away for the somewhat resurgent Guimarães on 19 minutes.
Farias got a rare start for Porto as Lucho and Cristian Rodríguez warmed the bench for most of the game. He made the most of it as well, firing in a vicious first half volley that was tipped over the bar and scoring a neat header on 51 minutes.
Mariano reacted well to wrongfoot the keeper and give Porto the lead seven minutes later, before Rolando made sure of the win on 87 minutes.
While many think Porto’s Champions League clash with Man United is a foregone conclusion, I wouldn’t start counting those chickens just yet.
Yes, it will be a big challenge for Porto and a massive shock even for them if they win it. But they are completely unstoppable in the league, have a lot of momentum and a lot of strong, fast players that could really put the wind up a Man United side that has been stuttering a bit of late.
Cissokho is a top class left back while Meireles offers something akin to a Roy Keane hardman in the midfield. Rodríguez is capable of some deft, defense shredding passes, but if anyone is to be watched and feared it’s Hulk.
Since arriving in Porto at the start of the season he has torn defences apart with his blistering pace, brawn and work rate. There’s no way he’ll be at Porto next year and his performances across the two legs could determine just which club he ends up at.
The other away victories came courtesy of Braga and Nacional, both of whom kept up their UEFA Cup chases by spanking Setúbal and Rio Ave 0-3, respectively of course.
The rest
Things look bad for Belenenses after they lost 1-0 at Académica, while Trofense managed to inch themselves away from the relegation dog fight by drawing 1-1 with Marítimo.
Last and definitely least Naval and Paços Ferreira got no one excited as they drew 0-0.
The top
Porto – 51
Sporting – 47
Benfica – 46
Braga - 40
Nacional - 39