The number three of the Liga NOS travels to the island of São Miguel to take on Santa Clara. Braga has a good season, but that also applies to her upcoming opponent. Who will win this duel?
Santa Clara:
Santa Clara is hard at work making history. The club played on the second level of the Portuguese Football Pyramid between 2003 and 2018. However, the team promoted in 2017/18 thanks to a second final ranking. Last season it performed very well and in the end this would lead to the best final ranking ever in club history. Os Açoreanos finished in tenth place and is aiming for the left row this season.
The season of João Henriques is still going up and down. In the new calendar year, Santa Clara recorded a series of four wins against Famalicão, Paços Ferreira, Belenenses and Tondela. With that it climbed towards the sub-top, but after that it went wrong again. Against Moreirense and FC Porto were lost and only one point was taken against Gil Vicente. The biggest danger comes from Santa Clara from the Brazilian wingers. Carlos Jr. and Lincoln are two young, talented wingers. The strong – and also Brazilian – center-forward Thiago is failing and only managed to find the net twice this season.
Braga:
After a poor start to the season, the team of Ricardo Sa Pinto was in the right row and that was not an objective that the club had in mind. He was allowed to pack his things after fourteen rounds, while the performances in the Europa League were admirable. Braga defeated Brondby and Spartak Moscow in the qualifying phase, after which Wolves, Besiktas and Slovan Bratislava were also beaten in the group phase. Against Steven Gerrard’s Rangers, however, was lost and the European adventure was over.
That loss was remarkable, because just then Braga was in a very strong phase. Ex-international Ruben Amorim took over from Sa Pinto and the young manager was in charge for nine games. These nine games he remained unbeaten and eight of them were even won. The classic top-3 with FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting was defeated and Amorim made a big impression. The only losses against Rangers he was not at the helm due to lack of the right papers. Ultimately it was Sporting who took over the brand new and also only 35-year-old head coach for ten million euros.
It seems to be a successful formula, a former player as a trainer. With ex-international Custodio Castro, Braga puts another inexperienced trainer at the helm. It is his job to defend the third place this season and to lead Braga to European football again. In his debut as head coach, he did not deviate from the successful 3-4-3 formation and Portimonense was pushed aside 3-1 effortlessly.
