Liga Sagres wrap: Sporting keep pace with leaders, Guimaraes climb

Sporting Lisbon climbed to third in the Liga Sagres after beating Feirense 2-0 on Sunday, as Guimaraes and Uniao de Leiria also won.

Hosts Feirense kept the visitors goalless throughout the first 45 minutes at the Estadio Municipal de Aveiro, but their task became harder when they lost centre-back Henrique Goncalves to a red card in the 55th minute.

It took Sporting just nine minutes to make their man advantage count, with Dutch forward Ricky van Wolfswinkel breaking the deadlock on 64 minutes.

And it was another one of Sporting’s Netherlands contingent, midfielder Stijn Schaar, who made sure of the points, netting the second goal with 13 minutes remaining.

The win lifts Sporting to within three points of leaders Porto and second-placed Benfica, who are level on 23 points at the top of the table.

In other matches, Vitoria Guimaraes earned a much-needed 2-1 win at home to Rio Ave.

Guimaraes led through Mahamadou N’Diaye’s goal eight minutes into the match, with Joao Pataco Tomas levelling for Rio Ave a minute into first-half injury time.

The visitors went down to 10 men when Vitor Gomes received a second yellow card with four minutes to go.

And Nuno Assis snatched all three points for the home side when he scored the penalty spot in time added on.

The win lifts Guimaraes out of the bottom three and up to 13th, while Rio Ave are now bottom.

Uniao Leiria also put distance between themselves and the drop zone, after a Bruno Moraes penalty and Djaniny’s goal sealed a 2-0 win at home to Vitoria Setubal.

Finally, two early goals from Mateus and Mario Rondon helped Nacional overcome Beira Mar 2-1, with all the action packed into the first half.

Douglas Maia did get a goal back for the visitors on 26 minutes, but they were unable to force an equaliser, despite Nacional losing Felipe Lopes Aliste to a red card with eight minutes still remaining before the break.