World Cup 2014: Portugal vs Slovenia

Presenter: Hello and welcome again to STP for Portugal's final Group H game against Slovenia.

Portugal are currently 5-4 favourites to win today's game against Slovenia, who are 7-4 to win. Portugal are sat in second place in Group H before this game, just behind Cameroon who play Australia today.


Not to be complacent but, Portugal's full starting eleven today have all played in a European competition this season, Slovenia's only contain three, Suler (Maribor), Beric (Sturm Graz) and Matavz (PSV).


15:00 The teams are out and now we head over to the gantry in Beira-Rio to our commentator for this match, Armando Azevedo.

1': Thanks you, Hugo Almeida will kick the final game off for Portugal here.

10': Australia's Robbie Kruse has put them top of group H and sent Cameroon down to third! Portugal are still second as it stands but a win could change that.

31': Sílvio has a throw-in in Slovenia's half for Portugal. Thrown down the right for Besiktas' Hugo Almeida to chase, he just gets to the ball and powers it into the box, all it needs is a touch! Away by Kampl!

Here's Matavz for Slovenia, Beric now. Here's Sukalo to his right now, he's attempted a ball over the top to Matavz but Costa heads it away easily. It's volleyed to Fernandes from Almeida, Almeida now joins Ronaldo in Slovenia's half now. Martins, Ronaldo, Dashes past his marker, Suler puts a foot in! Foul! Surely it has to be a red card, Suler was the last man! The referee, Meyer calls him over... It's not looking great for Suler... And Slovenia are down to ten men! And due to their 3-at-the-back formation they have two at the back at this moment in time.

33': Inter Milan's Handanovic takes the goal-kick. It doesn't make the half way line and Fernandes nods it down for Ronaldo. Ronaldo turns and sprints, he has Almeida to his left but it's looking as though he'll keep running, he's layed it off for his right-back Sílvio to whip in a cross... It falls straight at Kurtic's feet and hammered upfield.

Costa controls well with his face towards his own goal, no pressure on him at all from Slovenia's front two. Sílvio on the right now. High ball into Martins who's just ran into the far right hand side of the box here, whipped to Almeida's feet! Open goal! Almeida scores for Portugal! 1-0! It's put Portugal top of Group H by the one point!

38': Porto's Maicon replaces the injured captain Ricardo Costa.

45+3': The referee brings the first half to a close, it's 1-0 to Portugal from a Hugo Almeida goal. As it stands Australia and Portugal are going through to the last 16.

81': Matavz plays it back to Ipsa. Finds Kurtic in the center of the park, sprayed out wide to Jelenic, he's beaten Benfica's Rúben and crossed it in... Patrício excellently tips it away from Matavz's reach! Quality keeping as it's put out for a throw-in by Sílvio.

84': Portugal's Almeida is in trouble for diving inside the penalty area. Disgusting from the striker. For doing this he's earned himself a booking from Meyer. Handanovic to take the free-kick for Slovenia. Aimed at Kamp but Moutinho beats him in the air and Ronaldo knocks it down the left with his head for Fernandes to chase. Ronaldo makes a darting run into the box as Fernandes flies in a cross... Ronaldoooooooo! Goal! He's headed it past Handanovic to make it 2-0 and book Portugal's place in the last 16! Portugal two! Slovenia nil!

90+2': As Ronaldo brings it down with his chest, the referees final whistle has booked Portugal and Australia a place in the last 16.

From me, Armando Azevedo and everyone from STP, have a good day.

Portugal 2 - 0 Slovenia

Portugal (1st) and Australia (2nd) go through to the last 16.

*Note: Thanks to AaronHJTF96 for the amazing banner!

End of Season 2013-14

What an amazing season. Never when I took over did I think that I would win not only the league, but the cup as well. The feeling is immense. I'm so proud of my team, they're on such low wages that I didn't think they could find the motivation to win games, never mind the league! But these players played for the love and thrill of football and this memory at Braga will stick with them forever. It will be the highlight of their football careers.

I have Braga fans behind me, chanting my name every game now, I have the boards backing. I'm now allowed some financial flexibility and most importantly, I have the backing of the players, they stuck with me even though they didn't know a thing about the man who will ultimately lead them to their career's highest point.

Let's take a look back at our season. Braga: The class of 2014:

Fixtures

6/7/13 - 1/12/13


A tough first game in the league against Marítimo but we can blame that on the fact that the players hadn't gelled properly, but we breezed past the Belgian Pro League runners-up 6-0 on aggregate in the Europa League play-offs. That was how we started our European cup run which finished in a 5-0 aggregate defeat to Manchester City. After a shaky first month we really started getting into it in the league. 3-0's here, 3-2's there, we dominated. The lashings of Porto and Benfica summed up the first part of the season for us.

8/12/13 - 31/3/14


I didn't really want to compete in the League Cup (excuses, excuses ) but in this part of the season we made our way into the Europa League knockout rounds, beating Bordeaux 3-2 on aggregate and Saint-Etienne 6-3. On top of the quality performances in Europe, we were displaying true class in the league as well, holding our place in the top three so nobody could touch us. Once again, we were awesome in this part of the season.

3/4/14 - 18/5/14


Now this was the scary part of the season, we'd consolidated 2nd place ahead of Benfica a while back and we eventually ended up in first place, 3 points ahead of Porto at one point but the loss against Pacos de Ferreira took the title race down to the wire, entertaining: yes, nerve racking: definitely. But Afonso Alves grinded out two superb goals to bring the title to the north of Portugal, to Braga for the first time ever. The Taca de Portugal was the icing on the cake for us. We'd waited 48 years to win another trophy, then two come in the space of a week. Amazing.

League Table

I really hoped you enjoyed the tight run-in for the league title, I know I didn't! It was a relief when we did win it and taking myself out of character here, I've never been so tense over a video game in my life! But the fact that Porto and Benfica's spending power were so far greater than mine made the title win ever so much sweeter.

Awards

*Note: I won't be writing any text with these as the actual article says what is needed








(I also won the Manager of the Year award but forgot to screenshot it at the time, so yeah...)

But, that's it for the 2013-14 season for me. Thanks for following and I hope you enjoy the 2014-15 season!

Braga Thank Azevedo for Staggering Profits

Today, Braga chairman released the annual profits for the club to shareholders and the results were absolutely 'staggering' to put it into the words of director Rui Casaca.

The club saw stocks rise astronomically as the club finished their most successful season with a league title and Taca de Portugal to their name. Chairman António Salvador has said only manager Armando Azevedo is to thank for the immense £12 million profit. The overall revenue in the last financial year was amounted to £37 million, the highest the new champions have ever seen.

A national news reporter interviewed the manager, Azevedo after spotting him entering the local sex shop in Braga: "It is all down to Salvador for me, he showed faith in me as I had no previous experience in football management, especially not professional. I just did what the job is about, winning games and the players take most of the praise for that"

Transfers

It's that time of the year again, transfers. If you saw The Meeting towards the end of last season when I was offered the new contract, António Salvador had said to me he would give me over £10 million which he did, he gave me £12 million to work with, I sold just over £5 million which gave me something just over £17 million to spend.

First of all, lets get onto who was released as there were so many of them that were released from us:


Quite a lot isn't there? As we've cleared the wage bill a bit, it allows us to strengthen the actual first-team squad in all areas needed which is what we've done, here are who I bought!


And with the high wages coming in, more players did have to leave:

Batshuayi: I Want to Win

Braga's new record signing Michy Batshuayi has told The Braga Football Gazette he wants to win everything he can at Braga and that his boss Armando Azevedo is just the man to do that.

"I come to Portugal as it has much potential. Braga offered Standard good fee to sign me and I respect that, I respect the manager, Azevedo very much.
He welcomed me very politely and told me what he wanted from me, and he told me his aims for the club as whole" Said the Belgian.

"I see Portugal football on television and I like it, it is very exciting to watch. The Belgian league does not have many money to contend with big team like Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern... I think Braga can pay price to win trophies. That is my ultimate aim here in Portugal. Azevedo won Braga two trophies last season, and I want to be part of that for Braga. I want to be involved"

Since his €8m move from Belgium to Portugal, many Standard Leige fans have been singing Batshuayi's praises after a successful 6 years at the Pro League side.