This Friday, in Madeira, SC Braga tries to qualify for the semi-finals of the Football League Cup, in a match in which they are forced to beat Nacional, from the II League, and which is already eliminated from the competition.
The Minho team must win 2-0 to qualify or win by the minimum margin, as long as they score three goals or more. The 2-1 is also enough to tie Casa Pia at the top of Group A, with four points, but in this scenario the classification will be decided by the average age of the players used by the two clubs in the competition.
Artur Jorge did not seem particularly worried about this last condition, given that he included the experienced Fonte, Moutinho and Pizzi in the eleven, a trio in which the youngest is 34 years old. And it was even from one of them that the first goal of the night came: João Moutinho, in the 16th minute, from a penalty.
In a match in which the Braga team had not even started very well, they were penalized for a foul by Marakis on Ricardo Horta inside the area. With the advantage achieved, although minimal, the Braga team ended up settling into the game and scoring again, but in a play that generated so many doubts that it led to a VAR analysis, which took six minutes.
In a laboratory corner kick, Ricardo Horta received the ball outside the area and shot for an incomplete stop by Lucas França. One of the four players who were left alone in the penalty area – in this case, Niakaté – In the end, he only had to shoot into the almost empty goal and made it 2-0 in the 24th minute. He only celebrated it at 31′.
Until the break there was still a party in Braga, for Ricardo Horta, who appeared alone against Lucas França and beat the goalkeeper 3-0.
Eleven of the National CD: Lucas França, João Aurélio, Carlos Daniel, Ulisses, André Sousa, Francisco Gonçalves, Sérgio Marakis, André Martins Sousa, Luís Esteves, Witi and Teodora
SC Braga XI: Hornicek, Víctor Gómez, Niakaté, Fonte, Borja, André Horta, Moutinho, Pizzi, Bruma, Ricardo Horta and Banza
The referee of the match is Miguel Nogueira, assisted by Rui Cidade and Nuno Pires. The VAR is Rui Oliveira.
Substitutes for CD Nacional: Encarnação, José Gomes, Macedo, Chuchu Ramirez and Gustavo Silva
SC Braga substitutes: Matheus, Abel Ruiz, Roger, Paulo Oliveira, Zalazar, Vitor Carvalho, Adrián Marín, Rony Lopes and Castro
Source: TSF
