Taca Portugal 3rd Round: Olhanense vs. Oriental
This was likely to be the biggest test of my, and some of these player's careers. We went into the third round of the Cup off the back of some good form in the league and a 6-1 win against Santiago in the 2nd round. I was actually quietly confident we could cause an upset.
I went out with a full strength squad, and instructed them to stick to their positions when in defence, and then when they got the chance, to quickly break down the wings. I got to my dugout and took a deep breath. I was ready.
It was a largely uneventful match, and we defended strongly. There was one chance in the 92nd minute when Andre Rateira was played through in the 92nd minute and skewed it awfully wide. It went into extra time and I didn't change a thing. The team worked as a unit and the match eventually went to a penalty shootout.
I watched as Nuno Piloto stepped up for Olhanense to take the first penalty of the shootout. Pedro Alves stood still as a statue, as calm as anything. Piloto began his run up. I couldn't believe my eyes when Pedro Alves flung himself to his left and firmly
pushed the ball safely away from goal. In one of the biggest crowds at our stadium, the noise was defeaning.
We then converted our first penalty, one to the bottom left corner. I actually got out of the dugout and celebrated after Alves saved
his second consecutive penalty! If the noise was defeaning before, this was indescribable.
We went 2-0 up before they finally got on the board. They pegged us back to 2-2 before we made it 3-2. Then, the Olhanense's taker stepped up to take the penalty. By now I was in the middle of the park with my players, arms in arms. We watched on with all the crowd as Pedro Alves
saved his third penalty and sealed it!
Alves turned to the home fans and looked at the crowd, pointing at the name at the back of his shirt. We ran over and jumped on him. Everyone was absolutely ecstatic and we partied hard into the night, the dressing room was a mess. We had managed to top off a Liga Zon Sagres side. But what happened next made me better.
I found out that we had been drawn against
Sporting, one of Lisbon and Portugal's giants. They were winning the league under new manager Manuel Pellegrini and were on top form. I was relishing pitting our wits against them, to maybe make us the second best team in Portugal!