Welcome to our Christmas, New Year, last of 2009 and last of the noughties footballportugal podcast special! With 3 special parts, each more festive than the one before.
In Part 1 we concentrate on one of the most special Portuguese football fixtures of the year: the Benfica v Porto clássico. As ever, it was a tight game, fought tooth and nail between the two rivals, but the result was a little different from normal: Benfica won! It was their first victory (1-0) in this fixture for 4 years, the winner scored by Saviola.
In Part 2 we focus on all the other games in the league this weekend, which weren’t quite as special as the clássico but which all had their interest. Nacional fought Académica and fog to win 4-3 in a game which was delayed for a total of over 55 minutes. Braga failed to impress against Paços, but still got the three points. And Sporting narrowly beat Naval in a game that was so awful it was perhaps … special. Setúbal beat Marítmo with two goals from Keita, who looks a bit special. And Belenenses manager João Carlos Pereira was sacked after Belenenses lost 0-1 in a tight game away to Leiria. You can’t be feeling very special if you lose your job just before Christmas, so our best wishes go out to Pereira, who comes across as being quite a nice chap.
In part 3 we concentrate on “bits and bobs” as Phil likes to call them [edit: Thanks, Steve ...]. The bits are reports from the lower leagues and news on clubs in crisis, like Atlético de Valdevez and Boavista. The bobs are our mid-season awards, including player of the year so far, best buy, worst buy, most impressive team and most disappointing team.
Please let us know your opinions, especially regarding the mid-season awards we gave. We both hope you have a very special Christmas and an even more special New Year.
Steve and Phil
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