Vitoria Setubal

Ground: Estádio do Bonfim

Visits: 1

Date: 4th January 2018

Match: Vitória Setúbal - Estoril 2-2 (Primeria Liga)

Attendance: 3 374

There were two games in Primeira Liga on Thursday evening. One of those games were Vitoria Setúbal v Estoril at Estádio do Bonfim. From Roma-Areeiro station in Lisbon it takes 55 minutes by commuter train to reach Setúbal and on the way you use the impressive Ponte Vasco da Gama bridge to cross Rio Tajo. Kick-off this evening was at 18.15, more than three hours earlier than yesterday. The ground is only a 7-8 minute walk from the train station and as we arrived we went to the ticket office. I asked for two tickets and when the guy in the office realized we had come from Sweden & Germany to attend this game he gave me two tickets for free! I had to promise to chant “Vitoria, Vitoria” during the game though. My audition outside the ticket office went smoothly and everyone was smiling. Our unreserved seats were in the same stand as the media but unfortunately only those in the press box had covered seats. Estádio do Bonfim was opened in 1962 and has a capacity of around 12 000. Only one stand is covered though and the stands are a bit from the pitch and overall the ground feels outdated. Vitoria Setúbal have won the Portuguese cup three times and the league cup once. Jose Mourinho was born in Setúbal but he never played for the local football club.

As the game started (once the nets had been fixed) there were a few rain showers but it was mostly drizzle and it stopped after 20 minutes. In Primeira Liga they use the VAR-system and I have previously been positive to the introduction of VAR. Having seen it at use I am about to change my mind though. At this game everyone thought the home team scored in the 20th minute. Suddenly the referee ran towards the TV-monitors and watched replays and the goal was eventually disallowed. Offside in the build-up to the goal apparently but how far back in a situation should you look at replays? 0-0 at half-time but in the second half Vitoria Setúbal scored a correct goal, 1-0 in the 63^rd minute . 10 minutes late it was 2-0 and I was by now convinced Vitoria Setúbal would win and move out of the relegation zone. Estoril, second from bottom, then somehow pulled themselves together and scored two goals in the last 10 minutes. The game ended 2-2 but because of all the delays I missed the 20.18 back to Lisbon. I had to wait for the 21.18 train but this was a nice day out and I was still in a good mood. At 22.20 I was back in my hotel room for my third and final night in Lisbon. Tomorrow I will go by train to Porto for the final part of this tour.