Liga II roundup: Tondela stay top despite draw in Viseu | OneFootball

While this competition is one of the most unpredictable in the country, that doesn’t mean that we cannot have some normality around here once in a while. Given how this season has gone, it is something of news to have “normality in the Segunda Liga” at least one weekend.

Everyone who was supposed to win, won. Everyone who was supposed to lose, lost.

The Segunda Liga is not simple, but football can be. Tondela drew their match against Académico in the Beiras derby. That draw made it that the first ten teams on the table (from Académico in 10th to Tondela in 1st place) are only separated by nine points.

Académico 1-1 Tondela highlights

Penafiel got back to winning ways with a convincing win against Portimonense. The battle for immediate promotion (top two places) is absolutely on fire with Alverca in third place with 39 points, Penafiel in second with 40 and Tondela are leaders with 41 points. If you had to bet, who would get the promotion?

In the pit, everything went back to normal as well: FC Porto B lost again. Oh wait, what’s that? Marítimo got battered again? Jokes aside, what a big hit Marírimo have taken. A historic Primeira Liga team, constantly fighting for European football, and now on the verge of getting relegated to the third tier. Fortunately, it seems like their opponents FC Porto B, Oliveirense and Mafra are not very interested in getting out of the relegation zone as all of them lost their respective matches. Mafra’s last win was in mid-December. It is almost March! Wake up!

Feirense is now the in-form team of the competition. Four wins in a row puts them only four points short of the promotion spots. I know that I always say this, but when your tactics are not working, maybe a little bit of passion will do it. That is exactly what happened with the Fogaceiros. While they were playing good tactical football, they were crying about how unlucky they were. They left the tactics a bit aside and started playing with hate in their eyes, passion for the game. Surprise, surprise: four straight wins and a serious candidate to get back to the main stage in Portuguese football.

Player of the week: Samba Koné

It is rare for me to say something good about “game destroyers”, defensive midfielders in general that cannot make a good pass is something that irritates me. But, when they have the flare, the moves and are as gracious as Samba Koné, it is hard not to pick them as the best player.

Koné taught Tondela that if they cannot build their play through the middle, they have nothing on the other teams. Samba Koné covered every inch of midfield and launched counter attacks looking like prime Paul Pogba. And forced Tondela to cross the ball into the penalty area for more that 100 minutes because they couldn’t create anything any other way. What a performance!