In a match counting for round 5 of the LigaPro, Estoril Praia traveled this Sunday, October 4th, to Benfica Campus, to face SL Benfica B.
The Magician entered the field with Daniel Figueira on goal, Carles Soria, Hugo Basto, Hugo Gomes and Joãozinho on the defensive line, João Gamboa, Rosier and Zé Valente in midfield, Crespo, Vidigal and Aziz as offence men.
With the first few minutes very disputed and intense, Bruno Pinheiro was forced to change the team after 16 minutes of play, leaving the injured Rosier to make way for André Franco.
Estoril Praia started to dominate the match, conditioning the construction phase of SL Benfica, leaving no space for the reds to go out to play.
After 20 minutes, Soria changed the flank from right to left, Joãozinho received and cleared Vidigal, who shot towards the defense of Fábio Duarte at the edge of the area, the ball still left for Aziz who introduced it into the opponent’s goal, but the move was invalid by the arbitration team for illegal position of Ghanaian.
Estoril Praia was more dangerous at this stage of the match and 2 minutes later it was Crespo, with a shot from outside the area that put the attention of the Benfica goalkeeper to the test.
With Estoril Praia defending safely and not allowing movement near their defensive area, Benfica was trying his luck with shots outside the area, the most dangerous came on 26 minutes, with Daniel dos Anjos shooting for the defense on the second by Daniel Figueira.
At 32 minutes Crespo centered into the Benfica area with Aziz appearing at the first post and narrowly missed the opposite goal.
Benfica was looking for new solutions to reach the Estorilista goal, opting to look for the right wing pumping balls for the aerial game inside the area, but without success.
The first part ended with the null on the scorer.
Early in the second half Benfica had a direct free kick on the left, Vukotic hit the heart of the area with Daniel dos Anjos heading in, creating danger for Daniel Figueira’s goal.
After 63 minutes, Estoril Praia moved the team again, bringing in Chiquinho to replace Zé Valente.
At 65 minutes Joãozinho centers for the second post and Yabuku Aziz appears in the heights to head towards the bottom of Benfica’s nets. The scorer opened with Aziz’s second goal this season.
Benfica did not lose focus with the goal, kept the organization defensive and the spaces created danger for the goal of Estoril Praia.
At 80 minutes Vidigal leaves and Harramiz enters for the debut with the Estoril Praia jersey.
Until the end, Estoril Praia would still have a chance to score, with Chiquinho crossing the ball to defend the red guard.
At the end of the 90 minutes, the scorer scored 0-1 for Estoril Praia, who on the 5th round adds 12 points and occupies the 2nd position of LigaPro, the same as leader Mafra.
In the balance of the game Bruno Pinheiro said that “it was a very difficult game for both teams. Two teams that are very strong with the ball. Estoril came in better and dominated the first 35 minutes in a more relaxed way than what could be expected. From then on, Benfica reacted and adapted, we started to lose some balls and that started to take away some confidence and some quality to play, ending up balancing the game. It was a very disputed game, very balanced, we scored with a fantastic goal, a fair result ”.
