Sporting CP and Uniao de Leiria play out dull draw – Liga ZON Sagres recap
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sporting-Club-c40577 de Portugal’s tie with Uniao de Leiria ended in a dull draw in the ongoing Portuguese Liga ZON Sagres on Saturday at Estadio Jose Alvalade.
The home team went in with a 4-5-1 formation. Helder Postiga played the role of a lone striker while Diogo Salomao, Matias Fernandez and Yannick Djalo provided support for him.
On the other hand, the visitors went in with a 4-4-2 formation. Caca and Fabricio Simoes started upfront for Os Lis.
Sporting CP started the game as favourites but Uniao de Leiria’s defence also looked resolute. There were a few clear-cut scoring opportunities for both teams but no one got really hold of the game as most of the match continued in the midfield.
Both sides pressed forward but no defence looked fragile. The central defensive abilities of home side defenders, Marco Natanel Torsiglieri and Anderson Polga kept the visitors at bay.
On the other hand, Paulo Vincius and Jose Antonio dos Santos Silva (Ze Antonio) also proved to be a wall in front of the home team’s attackers, and the first half ended goalless.
Sporting came out with some intent in the second half and started pressing forward from early in the piece. But the defence remained strong and no team was able to break the deadlock even after coming close on quite a few occasions.
The dull pace of the match got the crowd restless and it started cheering the home side to inject some life into the game. Brazilian forward Caca was the first man to be booked in the 62nd minute after committing a needless foul.
In an attempt to go forward, Sporting midfielder, Andre Santos got himself into the books in the 70th minute for a rash tackle. The home side then started getting restless as the time passed by but were not given even a single opening by de Leiria’s
resolute defence. The match finally ended in a 0-0 draw, much to the disappointment of the home side.
With this draw, Sporting CP stayed third with 38 points while Uniao Leiria climbed one place up to the 8th spot with 30 points.
Uniao Leiria will host CS Maritimo in their next game on Friday, 1 April, 2011 while Sporting CP will host Academica Coimbra on Sunday, 10 April.
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