The final round of Liga NOS action before Christmas concluded last night, leaving us a familiar top three at the top of the league. Porto and Benfica comfortably made their way past Nacional and Gil Vicente respectively, while leaders Sporting were made to work in leaving it late to overcome Farense.
Minho duo Braga and Vitória Guimarães helped themselves to comprehensive victories and it is the latter who are continuing to improve under the guidance of new manager João Henriques. One of his successes so far is beginning to get the most out of marquee summer signing Ricardo Quaresma, the Portuguese veteran and PortuGOAL Figure of the Week was close to his scintillating best as his side dismantled Santa Clara.
At the ripe old footballing age of 37 Ricardo Quaresma should really be showing signs of serious decline yet the evergreen enigma has shown he is still capable of moments of magic ever since returning to Portugal once again this summer for a spell with Vitória Guimarães. The well-travelled winger, known across the globe for his talent and inimitable style, has enjoyed a fine and varied career, a product of Sporting’s academy that went on to represent the likes of Porto, Barcelona, Internazionale and Chelsea as well as successful stints in Turkey.
Arguably despite the level of success he has achieved, including playing a key part of Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph, based on his astronomical talent and technical ability Quaresma has somewhat under-achieved in his career, some of the spells at the aforementioned giants of world football not quite clicking as well as he would have hoped.
However back in Liga NOS he is re-finding his feet after a slightly stuttering start with Vitória this season. An early season change in management did not help this transition but when stationed on the opposite flank to the similarly mercurial Marcus Edwards the recipe for opposition defensive nightmares is pungent on paper.
For Monday’s trip to the Azores to face Santa Clara it was Edwards who had to settle for a place on the bench however with manager João Henriques reluctant to start the pair together, favouring one or the other to be paired with the more industrious Rochinha.
The coach’s decision to start Quaresma over Edwards was vindicated within six minutes of the kick off. Quaresma, starting on the right flank, showed excellent trickery on the ball, likely contemplated his signature “trivela” but instead crossed the ball into the box with his instep to find the lurking André André to guide the ball past Marco Pereira.
In the 27th minute it would be Quaresma himself to get on the scoresheet and double Vitoria’s advantage. The veteran capitalised on some slack possession play from the home side to win the ball high up the pitch with space ahead to attack. Support was present in the form of Rochinha and forward Óscar Estupiñán but Quaresma did not need either, twisting and turning for confidently burying a finish into the bottom corner.
A rampant Vitoria made it 3-0 before the break through Estupiñán and the forward grabbed his second early in the second period. More poor Santa Clara defending was punished and it was Quaresma who picked up another assist, a deft first-time pass finding Estupiñán and the Colombian did the rest.
A thumping victory for Vitória, their third league win in a row and some satisfying revenge over Santa Clara who had knocked the team out of the Taça de Portugal eight days earlier.
At 37 Quaresma was never going to be a long-term addition to Vitória’s team, especially given the player’s tendency to hop between clubs fairly regularly. However under Henrique’s guidance this spell could turn out to be much more than a swansong, there looks to be plenty left in the tank for the Portuguese wing wizard.
By Jamie Farr
