With fourteen absent due to Covid, the Portuguese club of Belenenses yesterday was forced to field a team of only nine players to face Benfica in the league, a game already defined as "shame", interrupted shortly after half-time.
"It was a shame to play here tonight," said Rui Pedro Soares, president of Belenenses at a press conference, after paying homage to the dignity of his "who were forced to play". At the Nacional stadium in Lisbon, the team from the Belem district found themselves in a grotesque situation. In addition to the many positive players, the coach and several members of the coaching staff were missing. Absences that forced the Belenenses to clear several young people of the spring,as well as a doorman as an improvised external.
Result, a goal conceded in the first minute and 7-0 for Benfica at the end of the first half.
After the break, only seven Belenenses players returned and one was immediately injured.
At this point the referee was forced to declare the end of the match in the 48th minute as the rule states that the match cannot continue "if one of the two teams has fewer than seven players".
"It is a black page for Portuguese football," said Rui Costa, president of Benfica, adding that his club, "just like the Belenenses, was forced to play" by the League.
