Ten points. With the draw (0-0) next Sunday in Pedreira between Sp. Braga and FC Porto, the battle for the 2022/23 title must have come to an end, given the advantage Benfica already has over second place, which is still Sérgio Conceição’s team. The dragons kept their distance for Minho’s side, but both saw Sporting close in the battle for the Champions League places after a game where Artur Jorge’s side started better but where equality was fair.
Entering the field of Pedreira on a sunny afternoon separated by two points, arsenalists and dragons have not changed much compared to the previous game. In Minho, Artur Jorge only promoted Tormena’s return to the axis of his defenses; in the Porto team, still licking wounds from the European match against Inter, Sérgio Conceição moved Pepê to the place usually occupied by Galeno and swapped the two full-backs, with Rodrigo Conceição on the right and Wendell replacing Zaidu on the left . Pepe stayed out, while Otávio took his place in the starting eleven.
With the benches very well put together, João Pinheiro’s opening whistle got both teams off to a nervous, intense and divided startbut it wasn’t until the 12th minute that the first chance for a goal arose: after a free kick, on the second ball, Otávio left Taremi isolated in the face of Matheus, with the Iranian shooting the ball over the goalkeeper, although he missed the ball . goal.
Led by Al Musrati in midfield, sp. Braga responded on 16″, in a fine individual work by Bruma. The winger managed to deceive two defenders and create space for a powerful shot that forced Diogo Costa to pay attention. Motivated by the signal, Braga returned to the blue to test goalkeeper and white, after Sequeira won a ball shared by Pepê The ball then reached Abel Ruiz who, falling on the right, shot very hard for a tight defense for a corner kick.
Seemingly calmer, the home team took control of the game and approached the opponent’s area against a non-aggressive FC Porto, losing almost all matches. Dissatisfied on the bench, Conceição tried to regain some balance by switching his pieces up front, taking advantage of Pepê, Otávio and Taremi’s ability to take other spaces. Not a great success. At 35 minutes, a considerable delay by Rodrigo Conceição scared the bench of FC Porto again and the coach was not half measures and sent Eustáquio and Galeno to play before the break: in the middle of Father’s Day he sacrificed his son Rodrigo, moreover until by Grujic, the 39th minute ran. Braga was always a little bit better until the break, only failing in definition when it reached the final third.
ball here ball there
The break was longer on the side of the dragons: you can imagine the dissatisfaction of their coach, who changed teams again. He knocked out the yellowish Wendell and sent Zaidu in. It is certain that FC Porto won twice as many corner kicks in just five minutes as in the first half. And after the second he came close to scoring, in a beautiful first shot from Galeno, which hit the grass before Matheus cleared the ball with a beautiful flight from the goal.
The home side blamed the touch and reacted before FC Porto got too comfortable in the game. A breakaway from Iuri Medeiros on the right allowed Ricardo Horta to appear head-on to finish a bomb that came close to Diogo Costa’s post (55′).
At the start of the last 20 minutes, the game went at an insane pace. Ball here, ball there, all done for 100 an hour, but not always with good options – which was reflected in the lack of clear scoring opportunities – perhaps because both teams knew very well that a draw was not good for anyone. At 76″, it was Artur Jorge’s turn to refresh his team and launch Castro and Banza in place of André Horta and Iuri Medeiros. Conceição in turn risked everything with Namaso and Veron. Lots of nerves, maximum intensity – but it was clearly lacking Even FC Porto could have scored, when Evanilson knocked Niakaté out of the way and failed against Matheus by shooting wide (86′), but Pizzi chose badly in both situations and the 0-0 was the end result.
Source: DN
