2 1 away win. Match report tomorrow!, ****ING DAYLIGHT ROBBERY,!! I am knackered getting there and getting back. But plenty of action!!
Match Report So! Madeira is an island of about 260,000 people…..not a long way from the size of Cardiff, if you think about it. They have two teams: one in the Portuguese top league (just about!!) and the other in the second league. Deportivo Nacional are Ronaldo’s old team and their ground is above the town of Funchal at about 700 m. above sea level. This is important! I got my ticket early in the week (30 Euros) and asked how to get to the stadium. Now bus transport is cheap on Madeira…..2 Euro within a local area and 2.60 anywhere else on the island. But there are no buses to the stadium…think about it…….big matches but no special services…….just car parking on the top. Without a car I decided to start out early and use the bus and google maps as far as I could. Google maps had lots of options so I got a bus and asked the driver. He knew **** all about how to get there and neither did any other driver. I got on a wrong bus and changed to another then eventually found a driver who took me near the football….unfortunately the wrong place. I ended up walking around a mountain and ravine to the correct place that was nearest to the stadium. Then 2 more miles up the hill. The stadium was very pleasant…got a drink before the match and noted two practice pitches and good facilities all on the site. Got my bag searched going in and noted that some other brits who were taking a bottle in had their metal drink holder confiscated and the plastic top was removed from their plastic water bottle. This was repeated for every bottle of water bought within the stadium well. So! To the match! Started well and early pressure got Nacional a penalty in the fourth minute. But Mr Ramirez was saved. Lots of subsequent pressure from the home side for the rest of the half and into the second half to no avail. Hen Nacional got another penalty (VAR checked) and this time Ramirez scored. Soon after, Nacional had a goal disallowed for a very narrow offside decision after VAR. Totally against the run of play, Arouca equalised- good header. Bit of toing and froing and Nacional’s central defender was red carded after a VAR review for being the last player….although to my mind there were other defenders who might have intervened. Not long after Arouca lost a player for the same reason. Then, lo and behold, Arouca scored again to take the lead……..after it was obvious for some time they had come for a point. Nacional manager got himself a red card for protesting too loudly about a couple of iffy fouls leading up to the goal. Ten minutes of extra time due to wholesale time wasting by Arouca. Nacional score again and getting it chalked off again by VAR. Daylight Robbery. Getting home was a real task. Another walk down a narrow road to the bus stop…only me doing it by the way. About 6000 at the match by my best guess….maybe I need to check the stats (just done so and it says 1,506!!!!!). But they all seemed to get there by car/taxi. There we have it. Prediction winners were Brizzle or BT…no tie breaker. Consolation to remote for his Ramirez penalty prediction!!!!
Good Not606 Cardiff tourism FfB. Beats my recent trip to Bournemouth by a country mile. Looks like a lot more action as well.
Sounds like a bit of an odyssey but well worth it for the match report alone Mrs Brizzle and I are off to Zante in a few weeks time and it looks like APS Zakynthos have a home match on the Sunday, so we may just take a wander down if we can. Don't think the standard will be quite as good as your game FFB but I'll let you all know
Great report Frankfurter. I went to Madeira once. Stayed outside Funchal. Nothing much happening there. Someone told me it was a place for the ‘newly weds or nearly dead’s’! Rather unfair I thought. Glad you managed to get to the game. Sounds like a good one with a bit of controversy.
