Week 26 of Liga Bwin 2021/22 may have been a little short on goals but there remained plenty of talking points across the round, namely Benfica dropping points at home to Vizela to kick the action off on Friday night.
Porto and Sporting each took advantage by registering comfortable victories over Tondela and Moreirense respectively. Gil Vicente’s superb season continued with a last-gasp win at legitimate top four rivals Braga.
Another team enjoying a surprisingly prosperous campaign is newly-promoted Estoril, who leapt into 7th place courtesy of their triumph over Portimonense. One of their January transfer window signings was integral to their success on the day, Spanish midfielder Jordi Mboula is our PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.
A promising young winger, Spanish-born but also holding Congolese citizenship, Jordi Maboula was snapped up by Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy back in 2010, albeit was unable to progress past B team level with the Catalan giants. Nonetheless, French side Monaco were convinced of his pedigree and potential to purchase him for €3m in 2017.
It’s fair to suggest that Mboula’s career has yet to truly kickstart, his stay in Ligue 1 peppered with loan spells away in Belgium and back to Spain, where he would end up moving to with Mallorca permanently in 2020. There too his time has been inconsistent, with Estoril swooping for a temporary deal for the wide man in the winter transfer window of this campaign.
The wing positions are a competitive area in this Estoril squad, one that had started the season terrifically but stalled somewhat around the time of Mboula’s arrival. Talented players like Bruno Lourenço, António Xavier and Arthur Gomes have generally been the preferred wide players in manager Bruno Pinheiro’s favoured 4-3-3 formation but Mboula has managed to dislodge the former two to start the most recent three matches as he shows signs of adapting to Primeira Liga.
The most recent of those XI appearances took place on Saturday afternoon at Estádio António Coimbra da Mota as Estoril hosted Portimonense. Mboula’s more direct style in attack than the possessional and creative stylings of Lourenço and Xavier paid dividends in a positive first half from the hosts.
Estoril got their reward for their attacking play in the 29th minute and it was Mboula who opened the scoring with his first goal for the club. The effort itself was a little fortuitous, the Spaniard in the right place at the right time to react and tap into an empty net after a deflected shot had rolled into his path.
Just moments into the second half Estoril doubled their lead as Mboula was influential once more, on this occasion turning provider. The winger deserves big credit for his role in the goal, tackling a dawdling Pedro Sá high up the pitch before receiving the ball back from Lourenco. Mboula then cleverly picked out the run of Francisco Geraldes, who did the rest with a cool finish.
Estoril saw out some subsequent Portimonense pressure to secure a 2-0 victory, ending a run of three matches without a win and moving them into 7th place in the table in the process.
Early days yet for Mboula in Portugal and indeed at only 22 years of age his game has plenty of time to develop and improve. Saturday’s display gave a glimpse in the potential Barcelona saw in him though, and Estoril and Liga Bwin could yet prove the ideal breeding grounds for him to take his first steps towards realising it.
By Jamie Farr
