Santa Clara Promoted to Betclic League; AVS SAD Draws 0-0 with Leixões: Playoff Promotion Only Option

AVS SAD drew 0-0 with Leixões and can only guarantee promotion through the playoff

Santa Clara was promoted today to the Betclic League, a year after being relegated, benefiting from AVS’ goalless draw with Leixões, in the 33rd round of the II Liga The Azorean team saw a definite promotion when time before they played on the ground of Mafra, as they are in second place with three points more than AVS and have an advantage in direct conflict, at a time when they have only one game left to play.

Meanwhile, Nacional, who won 3-2 in Tondela and are now leaders with 68 points, played one more than Santa Clara, having also been promoted.

Led by Vasco Matos, the ‘reds’ from Ponta Delgada will be present in the top tier of Portuguese football for the ninth time, after 1999/2000, 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2018/ 2019, 2019/2020/20 2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023.

The best performance in the competition was in the 2020/2021 season, when, under the technical guidance of Daniel Ramos, it finished in sixth place, with a total of 46 points.

The following season, Ramos would leave for Al Faisaly and be replaced by Nuno Campos, who later left the Azores to make way for Mário Silva. Despite changes in technical order, the Azoreans finished in seventh place, with 40 points, reaching the second best level in the history of the club.

In 2022/2023, the season in which Bruno Vicintin took the leadership of SAD, Santa Clara did not resist and even fell to the second tier, five years after promotion. As usual, there are also good campaigns by coach João Henriques in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, in which he ranked 10th and ninth, respectively.

The first time the Azoreans competed in League I, in 1999/2000, the team led by Manuel Fernandes was relegated, after being in last place with 31 points. This was followed by attendance in 2001/2002, the year in which he was 14th, with 37 points, before falling again the following year, after being 17th and last, with 35 .

The current coach of Santa Clara, Vasco Matos, is again involved in the climb to the top flight, after helping, as an assistant coach, Casa Pia to climb to the I Liga in 2021/2022.

After three years as Filipe Martins’ right-hand man, Matos took over the Santa Clara project this season as head coach, a position he held between 2017 and 2019 at Vilafranquense, and in 2019/2020 at Alverca.

After 32 games played, the ‘reds’ are in second place in the table, with one game and one point less than Nacional.

In addition to being the team with the fewest goals conceded (19 in total), Santa Clara is also the team that has conceded the fewest times this season in the second straight. Interestingly, all three defeats were at home and all 1-0, against Mafra, Nacional and Paços de Ferreira.