An inspiring move from Abel Ruiz, just after 18 seconds, and a close-range goal from Banza, 80 minutes later, were enough to decide an uninteresting game, highly contested in midfield and with rare dangerous situations for both teams.
For Sporting de Braga, the three points were saved, with another ‘grey’ performance after Thursday’s European debacle (4-0 home defeat against Fiorentina, in the first leg of the play-off entry into the round of 16 of the Europa Conference League) and a notorious lack of physical freshness.
The Minho team continues their hunt for second place, FC Porto, which is two points away, while Arouca registered the second defeat of the last four rounds, to which they also added a win and a draw.
Artur Jorge changed three ‘pieces’ against the team that started the match with the Italians and launched Paulo Oliveira, Bruma and Banza.
Armando Evangelista, on the other hand, repeated the opening eleven from the previous game (1-0 victory over Santa Clara).
Sporting de Braga almost literally won with the fastest goal of this season in the I Liga: the Spain international combined spectacularly with Ricardo Horta at the entrance of the penalty area and then shot in an arc, without resorting to Arruabarrena.
From the first minute, Arouca – who lost the Argentinian Alan Ruiz around half an hour due to an injury – liked to lose control of the game and had a lot of possession, but that prevented the team from creating any scoring opportunities. .
In the 57th minute, Artur Jorge put a bet on Pizzi and Iuri Medeiros, who shortly afterwards fired dangerously and forced the opposing goalkeeper to make a careful save (59).
The second half highlighted Arouca as the team with more possession, but always with too much ‘ceremony’, abuse of ball changes and ‘forgetting’ to aim for Matheus’ goal.
The goal that would condemn the result came in the 81st minute, when Banza retired after an incomplete defense by Arruabarrena, Castro’s header after a free kick.
The only clear scoring opportunities for Arouca came towards the end, first by Mujica (89), with Matheus as the star, and then by Bruno Marques (90+4).
Source: DN
