Liga Sagres wrap: Braga sink Sporting, Guimaraes climb

16 January 2012 00:42

Braga climbed to third place in the Liga Sagres on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Sporting Lisbon, as Olhanense and Guimaraes also won.

Braga climbed to third place in the Liga Sagres on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Sporting Lisbon, as Olhanense and Guimaraes also won.

Following a goalless first half at Estadio Municipal de Braga, winger Helder Barbosa opened the scoring for the home side six minutes after the restart.

Brazilian forward Lima added a second on 64 minutes.

And while Andre Carrillo pulled one back for Sporting 10 minutes later, the visitors proved unable to force an equaliser in the closing stages.

The win sees Braga leapfrog Sporting into third place, eight points behind league leaders Benfica.

Sporting meanwhile are down to fourth, now 11 points off the pace.

In other matches, Vitoria Guimaraes defeated Academica de Coimbra 2-0 away from home, thanks to goals from Nuno Assis and Anderson Santana.

Victory lifts Guimaraes above Academica and into sixth place.

Elsewhere, Olhanense saw off the visit of Beira Mar with a 2-1 home win.

Wilson Eduardo and Rui Duarte scored to give Olhanense the lead, before Moreira Artur pulled one back from the penalty spot for Beira Mar.

The visitors finished a man down after Hugo received a second yellow card in the 92nd minute.

Finally, Nacional de Madeira scrambled a 2-2 draw at home to Uniao Leiria, as both teams finished the match with 10 men.

Visitors Uniao led at the break following John Ogu's opening goal, which was cancelled out by Daniel Joao Santos Candeias three minutes into the second half.

Nacional went behind again and found themselves a man down after Vladan Giljen was shown a red card for a foul inside the box.

Elvis converted the resulting penalty to make it 2-1 to Uniao, and the visitors looked to be on course to take all three points back to the mainland.

The playing numbers were evened up when Jose Alberto Schaffer was shown a second yellow with 10 minutes to go.

Dejan Skolnik then struck 60 seconds later to make it 2-2 and secure a point for the home side.