Sporting B held to battling draw by Varzim

Sporting B were forced to split the points with Varzim on II Liga matchday 13, at the Sporting Academy.

It was immediately obvious that the afternoon would be more of a battle for possession than an demonstration of attacking football, with Varzim packing four into the middle and hindering the efforts of the Alvalade forward trio of Rafael Barbosa, Diogo Salomão and Viola.

In fact, Sporting B didn't create a single opportunity on goal in the entire first-half, but Varzim were also looking remarkably unthreatening moving up the pitch. Pedro Silva pulled off a hand full of solid saves in the Sporting B goal, denying João Carneiro the opener. Neither team was really managing to get an effective grip on the encounter, but it was Nuno Capucho's side who looked the better of the two. Bruno Moraes was unable to keep his header on target, before Seejou King raced back to clear off the line after Stanley had picked out Bruno Moraes in front of goal.

The second-half was much of the same, with very few opportunities and Varzim looking slightly more convincing. Bruno Moraes again tried his luck, but the Brazilian was again off target. Sporting B finally started to push forward as the clock ticked on, but Viola's attempts failed to hit the mark and left Ricardo largely untroubled.

On 69 minutes, Bijou picked out Nelsinho, but Sporting B keeper Pedro Silva was on hand to maintain his cleansheet. In response, Francisco Geraldes exchanged passes well with Podence and found an inch of space in the area, but he was unable to find the back of the net in what was Sporting B's best chance of the afternoon. Viola again threatened late on, but the last chance of the game fell to Stanley with a shot that took a kind deflection off Domingos Duarte to almost get the better of Pedro Silva.

The result keeps Sporting B in third place in II Liga, with 22 points.