eusebio-ronaldo-figo

PortuGOAL Figure of the Week: André Silva’s spectacular strike spearheads Arouca survival bid

Only six rounds of games remain of the 2021/22 Liga Bwin season, the 28th Jornada seeing top two sides Porto and Sporting pull further away from the pack with comfortable wins over Santa Clara and Paços Ferreira respectively.

Benfica lost ground in the title race by losing a thriller against Braga on Friday evening, whilst the latter’s Minho rivals Vitória Guimarães kept their faint top five hopes alive by beating Moreirense.

The relegation battle heated up with a number of the sides in the bottom half of the table all registering victories, one of which being Arouca who arguably secured the result of the weekend by overcoming a strong Gil Vicente thanks to two goals from their Brazilian striker André Silva, who is our nomination for the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.

Brazilian born André Silva began his career with Diadema in his native country. He was loaned to Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk in 2015, albeit never rising above their B team level. He swapped Brazil for Portugal two years later by joining then-Primeira Liga side Rio Ave, but again his experiences at senior level were limited so he transferred to Arouca in 2019.

With Arouca he has become a key part of their extraordinary rise back to the top flight, the team playing in the Portuguese third tier upon Silva’s arrival. Consecutive promotions followed and at the age of 24 the striker is getting a regular taste of Primeira Liga action and is not looking out of place, registering eight league goals so far.

Spearheading his manager Armando Evangelista’s 4-3-3 formation, Silva’s speed and movement are prize assets that make up for his relative lack of height, although on that point he does possess good aerial ability.

Silva started for Arouca this weekend as the return of domestic football after the international break represented an opportunity for the team to arrest their recent form that had seen them winless in the previous four matches. Their opponents on Saturday afternoon were not ideal, high-flying Gil Vicente visiting Estádio Municipal de Arouca.

To make matters worse, hosts Arouca found themselves down to ten men just before the half time whistle, David Simão’s initial yellow card-punished challenge upgraded to red upon VAR review.

The second half would seemingly only go one way but Arouca upset the odds by taking the lead in the 55th minute through a superb Silva goal. The striker showed great movement to evade his marker before guiding a fine near post header into the corner from Arsénio Martins’ cross. 

If the goal was considered impressive, it was nothing on what would occur just four minutes later as Silva doubled his tally and his side’s lead in quite sensational fashion, the Brazilian picking up a loose ball inside his own half before spotting Gil Vicente’s Žiga Frelih off his line, taking full advantage by unleashing a spectacular effort over the keeper and into the back of the net - while still stationed way inside his own half of the pitch!

A magnificent strike that will surely see Silva’s name entered into this year’s Puskás goal of the year category, and one that would more importantly prove the afternoon’s winning goal. Gil Vicente pulled a goal back late on but it wasn’t enough to deny Arouca a hugely important victory that saw the side remain outside the relegation zone in Liga Bwin.

The relegation battle remains so tight in Portugal, furthermore so with the aforementioned triumphs of many of the teams within this season’s fight. Very few of the sides at the wrong end of the division have a frontman that boasts Silva’s numbers though and Arouca will need more goalscoring heroics in this weekend’s vein in order to cap their fairytale story with top flight maintenance come May.

By Jamie Farr

@FRfutebolJamie