League Play-Off

Cicouro
Spectators: 32 (Terracing: 25, Seating: 7, VIP seats: 0) Dark clouds were building up when the players entered the field. None of the them looked very eager to play. Vicente Viegas started the match with the kick off. José Lopes fired away a screaming shot towards the goal in the 5th minute, but the shot went just over the crossbar without Bernardo Ferro having to interfere. José Lopes blasted a shot towards the goal in the 9th minute, but the shot hit the top of the crossbar and went out without Bernardo Ferro having to make a save. Henrique Macedo struck a weak shot in the 17th minute. Américo Matias didn't even have to move as the ball rolled over the line well wide of the goal. A wasted opportunity for Cicouro. Júlio Nunes hit a great freekick 18 minutes into the match. An unexpected shot in the 19th minute by Henrique Macedo got the crowd on their feet, but to their dismay it went out on the left side. 22 minutes into the match, Cicouro's Henrique Macedo sent off a blazing shot straight on target, a shot that Américo Matias narrowly saved just below the crossbar. Carlos Baptista's late challenge caught a SC Matriz's player on the shin and left him crawling around in pain. The referee blew his whistle and produced the yellow card. Carlos Baptista helped the player get up and apologised. Carlos Baptista hit a great freekick 24 minutes into the match. Carlos Baptista fired away a screaming shot towards the goal in the 27th minute, but the shot went just over the crossbar without Américo Matias having to interfere. An unexpectedly hard shot by Vicente Viegas in the 30th minute of play forced Cicouro's goalkeeper Bernardo Ferro to throw himself to the left, to be able to save the ball. Vicente Viegas sent away a hard shot on goal in the 31st minute, but the ball hit the crossbar and went out. A very good chance for a goal. If José Lopes had kept his shot down it would have been a goal in the 33rd minute. The ball went over the crossbar and out instead. The referee was alert and spotted a serious foul by Simão Pereira during the 35th minute. The player immediately received a yellow card. SC Matriz:s Américo Matias showed great skill when he stopped Tiago Porto:s penalty. In the 39th minute, Sebastião Martins hit a crossing free kick to the open man running down the field. Cicouro's Tiago Porto shoveled away a really nice long shot in the 40th minute of play. The shot was stopped by Américo Matias but with some difficulty. After having played for 44 minutes, José Lopes managed to get in a good position for a shot on goal. SC Matriz's supporters crossed their fingers, but José Lopes was, after a quick turn that froze the defenders, out of balance and shot the ball just to the right of the goal. The crowd was extremely unhappy with the home team's performance in the first half. They were losing 0-1.

Both teams looked relatively alert before the second half when the referee blew his whistle to tell Carlos Baptista to make the kick off. After some careless play in the SC Matriz defense, Carlos Baptista kicked a shot that curved into the net to the right of Américo Matias. The SC Matriz fans voiced their displeasure as they felt that Américo Matias should have stopped the shot. Américo Matias took care of the ball after a well-directed shot from Carlos Baptista, even though the ball almost passed him on his left side. When Amílcar Amaro came up free with the goalie in the 58th minute, the Cicouro fans jumped to their feet. But the shot missed the goal by a fraction of an inch, and the fans sat back down disappointed that Amílcar Amaro couldn't finish the play. Américo Matias didn't have a chance when a screaming shot from Carlos Baptista went, in the 60th minute, to the upper right corner, 2-1 was the resulting score. Vicente Viegas sent away a hard shot on goal in the 63rd minute, but the ball went just over the crossbar and out. A very good chance. The audience was convinced that Vicente Viegas's extremely hard shot when he got free in front of the goal was going in, but Bernardo Ferro was relentless in the 67th minute of the game. Vicente Viegas did some fancy footwork in front of goal and succeeded to deceive the defenders so he could slam the ball in 2-2 to the left of a surprised Bernardo Ferro 71 minutes into the match. In the 76th minute, Carlos Baptista got an opportunity to score, but he didn't get a solid hit on the ball and ended up kicking it wide of the goal. Amílcar Amaro received a nice pass in the box and took a hard shot in the 80th minute. Américo Matias tensed up and prepared to dive, but the shot went over the goal with him having to interfere. In the 82nd minute, SC Matriz's Vicente Viegas dribbled the ball into the box and hit a shot with the outside of his foot, sending the keeper the wrong way. 2-3. Carlos Baptista received a nice pass in the box and took a hard shot in the 88th minute. Américo Matias tensed up and prepared to dive, but the shot went over the goal with him having to interfere. After 91 played minutes, Cicouro's Tiago Porto shot from a long distance, and at first it looked like the ball was going into the goal, but the goalkeeper Américo Matias came through and got his fingers on the ball before it flew over the goal line. He then quickly gripped the ball tighter before the forwards in Cicouro reached it. Amílcar Amaro fired away a screaming shot towards the goal in the 94th minute, but the shot went just over the crossbar without Américo Matias having to interfere. The SC Matriz supporters could be heard counting down the last seconds of the match. They errupted in celebration when the whistle blew, knowing SC Matriz would go home with victory in their luggage after a match that easily could have ended differently.