Liga Europa?

Just a quickie to round up this weekend's football highlights. On Friday night I met up with a good friend of mine down at the local bar for a few beers, to watch the football on the telly and generally unwind from the working week. All the usual Friday night shenanigans. And there's this guy in there that over the past few months seems to have befriended us. And I still don't know his name. Anyway, he's in there, not drunk, but getting there and he starts trying to tell us that one of the Estoril players, a certain Steven Vitoria, is moving to Benfica. What's more, apparently he's transferring for free. For Nothing! Nada! Simply the glory of playing for Benfica I suppose. (Splitter!) Anyway, then he starts on about how Estoril need 9 points, or can get nine points or something like that. And he keeps saying, "Liga Europa." So we get the sports paper, "A Bola", down from off the top of the cigarette machine, lay it out on our table and we turn to the page with the current league table. The three of us sat there for a good hour adding up the points that all the teams would likely get over the remaining matches, and figuring out who Estoril's most dangerous competitors to the much sought after 5th position are. Even considering the language barrier, there's certainly no fooling this guy. With five games left to play, and a group of four teams with only two points behind Estoril, the yellows needed 3 wins to maintain 5th place and therefore gain entry into next years Europa League.

The teams left on Estoril's agenda were Setúbal, Braga, Benfica, Beira Mar and lastly Gil Vicente. With Benfica and Braga being two teams in the reputed "Big Four" of Portuguese football, those matches were therefore likely to be losses. What's more, Beira Mar and Gil Vicente are both teams currently residing at the bottom end of the table, and so should technically be easy wins. So after much debate, and adding up Estoril's closest competitor's likely wins and losses it became very apparent that everything was reliant on the game with Setúbal, to be played away, on Sunday afternoon.

Setúbal is a largish town, just south of the Tejo and only about an hour's drive from Estoril. With kick off at four, we set off at around two just to make sure that we had enough time to find the stadium, a place to park and get a couple of tickets. I'd heard from a neighbour slightly earlier that day that the hardcore supporters had left in a bus at about half past ten, giving them plenty of time to get "nicely lubricated" before the kick off! As we drove into the centre of Setúbal, and spotted the stadium on the right, we also spotted a small bar on the left with many boisterous yellow shirted men spilling out of the door onto the street clutching beer bottles. The singing was underway, seemingly rising in volume with the passing of every car-full of Setúbal supporters! A young man was banging out the rhythm on a drum that had been decorated in Estoril colours. Clearly they were indeed a well lubricated Estoril supporting machine!

We followed the crowd of yellow into the stadium and up into the away end. Setúbal is a much larger stadium than the one in Estoril, with banked seating all the way around. The two main banks on either side of the pitch were crammed with green and white. Only a small section on one end, seemingly miles away from the pitch in comparison to Estoril's stadium, had been devoted to yellow shirts. Estoril played liked they'd never played before. The guys were maintaining control of the ball, possession was almost exclusively ours, and well, it seemed inevitable that eventually one of the many crosses in front of the goal would be finished off, resulting in a well deserved goal. Then, alarmingly in the 62nd minute, one of our boys gave away a penalty! No! All of our willpower was with Vagner, who had once before this season saved a penalty, to replicate this feat and keep us in the game. But alas, it was not to be. Setúbal 1, Estoril 0. And that was, in the end, the final score.

Driving home was a drudge. Not least because we'd lost, but amplified further by the half hour in almost still standing traffic queuing up to pay the toll at the bridge back in to Lisboa. The good news was that all the other teams that could have overtaken Estoril had not. Estoril maintained 5th place. Except there was one match to play. Olhanense v Guimarães, earlier tonight. Unfortunately, Guimarães won. And that means they now take the 5th spot on the table leaving Estoril one point behind in sixth.

Only one thing for it. Estoril Praia must beat Braga next weekend. At least we have the home team advantage.