ESTELA SILVA/LUSA
Dragões won 2-0 against Estrela da Amadora.
Estrela players and coaching staff ran off the pitch after the final whistle and reportedly approached the refereeing team to protest. Blues and whites have not yet commented.
After a game with emotions running high and two expulsions for the Amadora team, the Estrela coach denounced a “huge confusion” in the exit tunnel of the Estádio do Dragão pitch, after FC Porto (2-0), in the 14th round of the I League.
Moments after the conference given by his ‘blue and white’ counterpart, Vítor Bruno, José Faria arrived at the press room accompanied by four agents from the Public Security Police (PSP) and members of the venue’s private security, addressing the alleged incidents occurring between members of the two teams at the end of the match.
“I was sent off in the last minutes and watched the game in an attached room. Suddenly, when nothing had predicted it, I was surprised by a huge mess in the tunnel.. I know there was a series of pushes. The competent authorities are there to evaluate. I think there are cameras, it’s not my place to comment on what happened. But I also can’t say that nothing happened. There was a confusion in which the referee and people who were not at the game were present”, he revealed.
Expelled in the second half for words addressed to referee Miguel Nogueira, from the Lisbon Football Association, José Faria admitted he didn’t know how it all started, but said he believed in the version conveyed by the players and the rest of the Estrela da Amadora technical committee.
Outsiders could see Estrela’s players and coaching staff get fired from the pitch to the access tunnel to the changing rooms at the final whistle. The confusion allegedly began when members of the Amadora team approached the refereeing team to protest the two expulsions suffered in the game, according to .
“Whoever has the right to do so, and it’s not me, because I wasn’t in the area, will have to say what happened. I saw some things. I don’t know how they started, because I wasn’t there at the time, but I have no reason not to believe what they told me. Estrela da Amadora didn’t come here to try to cause trouble. We try to do our best”, he stressed.
The Lusa agency tried to contact some FC Porto sources about the version exposed by José Faria, but has not received a response so far.
The ‘dragons’ provisionally isolated themselves this Monday in second place, with 34 points, two less than national champion and leader Sporting and two more than Benfica, third placed, but with one game less.
