Between the ubiquitous and the ridiculous. The meeting between Belenenses and Benfica will remain as one of the highlights of the football season on Saturday 27 November, but not for the right reasons.
Due to a cluster of Covid-19 contaminations, the local team could not field enough players to face the Lisbon giant, during the 12th day of the championship. As a result, Belenenses was forced to play from the kick-off with nine players and could not even count on the slightest replacement. A few minutes after the resumption of the second period, they were only six on the field, after a player injury. The referee then whistled the end of the game on a forfeit from the Belenenses team.
A nossa equipa #TorresdeBelem #LigaPortugal #Futebol pic.twitter.com/0B8KiMBYZt
– Belenenses Futebol SAD (@OsBelenensesSAD) November 27, 2021
The club, through the voice of its president, assured not to have requested the postponement of the match. But the contagion to the coronavirus has taken such proportions that it has prevented the formation from being able to play the meeting normally. The health authorities, for their part, did not consider the postponement of this match necessary, while the stands were very sparse.
A decision that displeased, in particular one of the absent, midfielder Afonso Sousa, who tweeted: “Football has color only if it has competition. Football has color only if it has a sporting truth. Football has color only when it is an example of public health. Today, football has lost its color“.
Seventeen players have tested positive and placed in isolation. The source of this contamination could come from Cafu Phete, South African player of Belenenses, who took part in the last two games of his national team on November 11 and 14 against Zimbabwe and Ghana on behalf of the Cup qualifiers. of the world 2022. “It is not a matter of fear, but we have to consider the possibility that Cafú is infected with the new strain because it is from South Africa. All athletes are vaccinated and at the moment almost all are asymptomatic“said Rui Pedro Soares, president of the current 16th in the Portuguese league.
Uma foto para but tarde (não) recordar … pic.twitter.com/yQnmqkmfT3
– B24 (@ B24PT) November 27, 2021
Forced to do with the means at hand, Belenenses could only present nine players at kick-off, including five holders who usually play with the club’s U23 team. Among them, 20-year-old goalkeeper João Monteiro experienced his first professional encounter as a makeshift midfielder. The evening promised to be long, as Benfica opened the scoring with a goal against their own camp from the first minute of play. At half-time, the score was already (7-0) for the Lisbon players. But after the locker room, the local team had only seven players, and a few minutes later, one of them was the victim of a breakdown. Reduced to six, the team could not continue. The match ended. The end of an ordeal, of a masquerade.