Sp. Braga punishes Portimonense and threatens FC Porto in the League | Game chronicle

Portimonense and Sp. Braga ended the 27th round of the I Liga with a 3-5 victory for the Minho team, which brought the Arsenal team closer to third place in the league table. Everything, in a game with eight goals (and two disallowed) that may have marked the farewell of Artur Jorge, “announced” as Botafogo’s new coach, with negotiations between leaders António Salvador and John Textor still to be finalised.

The game in Portimão got off to a perfect start for the Braga team, who in less than three minutes reached an advantage created by Roger Fernandes and completed by Bruma, in the first opportunity of the night. The Minho team thus overcame the absence of Ricardo Horta, unlocking a game in which Abel Ruíz could have avoided some unpleasantness, ending up allowing Nakamura to safely intervene in a shot that required better definition.

Without scoring in four games, coming from two consecutive defeats and a gap of seven matches without winning, the pressure exerted on the Algarve team, in a position to play-off of relegation and without the Carlinhos reference, it increased drastically, forcing a strong reaction.

And the response to the effectiveness of the Braga team was not long in coming, with Hélio Varela being stepped on by Serdar, in the area, the VAR correcting the referee and Pedrão beating Matheus with a penalty. Portimonense, with Moustapha Seck prominent on the left, began a period of greater dominance, only betrayed by the ineffectiveness of Varela and Seck and the elasticity of Matheus in the Minho goal.

The locals They wasted a couple of blatant opportunities and paid too high a price, conceding the second goal following yet another inattention from the central defenders, with Rodrigo Zalazar opening a freeway for Roger Fernandes to dominate with his chest and shoot with just Nakamura in front.

After an attempt to react by Paulo Estrela, the last 15 minutes of the first half were once again more offensive for Sp. Braga, with Banza starring in the most interesting moment, with an acrobatic shot deflected by Alemão.

The warning was given and Banza, upon resumption, only needed four minutes to dispel any doubts and reaffirm his desire to take advantage of FC Porto’s defeat against Estoril to shorten the distance to third place and offer Artur Jorge a possible exit in a big way. …

Banza (61′) scored twice, from the penalty spot, and Bruma (69′) annihilated any chances of a reaction, giving the game the character of a rout that only a second and third Algarve goal, scored by Hildeberto Pereira (71′) – also repeated , but in an irregular position – and Fukui (86′) mitigated, without being able to mask the 58 goals conceded in the season, the worst record in the League.