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There were only seven left: The Belenenses Lisbon team, decimated by Corona, comes back on the pitch after the break
Photo: Valter Gouveia / SPP / Sports Press Photo / IMAGO
Corona scandal in Portugal's soccer league: Because Belenenses Lisbon was only able to offer six players, the bottom-tier match against city rivals Benfica was canceled in the 48th minute when the score was 0: 7.
The reason for the plight in the bottom of the table were numerous corona cases, as the Portuguese sports newspaper "A Bola" wrote.
As soon as the teams walked into the stadium in Lisbon on Saturday, it became clear that something was wrong at all.
Belenenses started with just nine players against Benfica, including two goalkeepers, one of whom was in midfield.
On the bench: yawning emptiness.
Belenenses President Rui Pedro Soares criticized the league, which forced the club to play despite numerous corona failures.
Benfica's president, Rui Costa, stressed that his club was obliged to play the game under the regulations, even though they were anything but comfortable.
What had to come came on the field.
Kau von Belenenses scored the first goal in the first minute, but in his own goal.
The favorite scored six more goals by half time.
After half-time, only seven Belenenses players returned to the lawn, two remained in the locker room.
When João Monteiro, the goalkeeper who had to play in midfield, was injured, the referee broke off the game.
Soares tried to comfort his team.
"I've been watching football for 48 years and have never seen players as worthy as you who were forced to play," the sports newspaper "Record" quoted him as saying.
Like at SV Sandhausen
SV Sandhausen experienced a similarly blatant case in the Second Bundesliga: After corona outbreaks in the team, the game against FC St. Pauli had to be canceled at the beginning of November.
An "extensive PCR test" had shown 18 positive corona findings in the SVS team and the surrounding area.
Twelve players and six supervisors were affected, all of whom had to go into quarantine.
The German Football League (DFL) confirmed that the SVS "did not have the necessary minimum number of players".
oka / dpa