The Expert: Tondela hit back as Guimarães’ golden chance goes begging
He was never shy to put in a shift as a player but still, Petit’s coaching career has been a war of attrition so far. As a midfielder with Benfica and Portugal - and a close confidante of Cristiano Ronaldo in the national team - he was the sort of player you always would have wanted beside you in the trenches. He was tough, tidy and dedicated.
If it hadn’t been for a series of knee problems, Petit would probably have had the chance to show those qualities to an even wider global audience, with Manchester United long-term admirers before fitness became a recurrent issue. He has rarely complained, though, and the same is true since he became a coach - first at Boavista, where he took over in the third tier after playing in their title-winning side of 2001, and now further south at Tondela.
Petit’s achievements may not be major headlines, but they have often been impressive. He kept Boavista up against the odds in the 2014/15 season - they came directly from the third to the top flight after their administrative relegation in 2008 was ruled unjust, but the team still finished 11 points above the drop zone. He kept Tondela up, a club so small that they had a total annual playing budget of less than €1m in their promotion season in 2015, on the final day of last season.
They were again up against it here, kicking off as the Liga’s bottom side against a Vitória Guimarães team that had won five straight in all competitions. Despite a dominant first half display by Tondela, Soares’ goal had Pedro Martins’ visitors heading for a continuation of that run, and three points would have seen Guimarães leapfrog a spluttering Porto into third place.
Then came Murilo. The 20-year-old wide man, who arrived from Brazilian fourth-tier football this summer, took the field with seven minutes of regulation time to go and the match ebbing away from Tondela. He got busy in the blink of an eye and two pinpoint Murilo deliveries from the left were both gobbled up in imperious style by Wagner, and in less than two minutes, the home side had taken an improbable lead. Murilo only had five touches in his time on the field but boy, did he make them count. Wagner, ostensibly playing in midfield, was frequently his team’s most advanced player, and finally his runs into the box were rewarded.
On the other side of the fence, visiting coach Martins pinpointed his team’s difficulties as having come earlier in the game. “We gave them 45 minutes’ head start,” he fumed after the match, and he was right. Unable to retain possession - they only had 49% even by full-time - and lacking a creative spark in that first period, Guimarães’ performance smacked of a team that just thought they had to turn up in order to win. If one was being generous, it might be argued that they felt the pressure of taking that expected place on the podium, with over half of the 2,000-strong crowd made up of Vitória fans expecting to see their side do the necessary.
Another mitigating factor for Martins and his men was the absence of banned top scorer Moussa Marega, whose 10 goals in to date also makes him overall leading scorer in the Liga, three ahead of both Sporting’s Bas Dost - who netted their winner at Boavista this weekend - and André Silva, Porto’s feted young talent. Yet in the first half, the chances were simply not there to be missed. Of Guimaráes’ 16 attempts at goal, only two were before half-time. They didn’t have any at all before Soares’ headed effort on 27 minutes. Even if Marega had been present, he would have been starved of service.
It was strange to see such a timid version of Guimarães, after they scored five times, and conceded none, in their previous two Liga NOS road trips, to Rio Ave and Estoril. It was enough of a concern for Martins that he sought to reanimate his side shortly after the restart, bringing on Bernard Mensah for Tozé, though the on-loan Atletico Madrid midfielder hasn’t really found his feet in his second spell at the club, and is yet to start in the Liga.
With Marega eligible to be recalled by parent club Porto in the winter break - and with the Dragões without a goal in their last three games, underlining their current shortcomings - formulating an alternative plan is important. Even in such a below-par display, Guimarães could have snatched a point, with Tondela’s Claúdio Ramos denying Hernâni an equaliser in stoppage time by charging from his line to smother the winger’s shot.
For Petit and his team, maybe this discovery of an attacking blueprint can be the start of something. He praised his players afterwards, pointing out that he has a “completely new” squad - nine of the 13 players who took part against Guimarães weren’t at the club last season. There is plenty of work ahead, as even after those mad few minutes, Tondela remain the Liga’s joint lowest scorers with eight in 11 games, level with bottom side Moreirense, who unsurprisingly drew a blank on their trip to Benfica this weekend. Yet upsetting the odds is what Petit does. Long may he continue to fight the underdog’s corner.
