Promotions confirmed: Nacional and Santa Clara returned to Ligue 1 – Ligue 2

AVS SAD drew 0-0 with Leixões and can only secure promotion through the play-off

Today, the Santa Clara team secured promotion to the Betclic League, a year after its relegation, benefiting from the AVS team’s 0-0 draw with the Leixões team, in the 33rd round of the second league, where the Azzurri team confirmed the promotion an hour before playing at Mafra Stadium in second place with three points. More points than AVS and have a head-to-head advantage, while they only have one game left to play.

At the same time, Nacional, which won 3-2 in Tondela and leads the standings with 68 points, one point ahead of Santa Clara, also secured promotion.

Led by Vasco Matos, the Red Ponta Delgada team will be present in the Portuguese Primera Division for the ninth time, after the years 1999/2000, 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2018/2019, 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023. .

The best performance in the competition was in the 2020/2021 season, where it finished sixth, under the technical leadership of Daniel Ramos, with a total of 46 points.

The following season, Ramos left for Al-Faisaly and was replaced by Nuno Campos, who later also left the Azores to make room for Mario Silva. Despite the changes in technical leadership, the Azzurri finished in seventh place with 40 points, reaching the second best ranking in the club’s history.

In the 2022/2023 season, the season in which Bruno Visintin assumed the presidency of SAD, Santa Clara did not resist and were even relegated to the second division after five years of promotion. For the record, there were also good seasons under coach Joao Henriques in the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons, where they finished tenth and ninth respectively.

The first time the Azzurri participated in the first league, it was in the 1999/2000 season, where the team, led by Manuel Fernandez, was relegated after being in last place with 31 points. This was followed by his presence in the 2001/2002 season, the year in which he ranked fourteenth with 37 points, before falling again the following year, after being in seventeenth place and penultimate with 35 points.

Current Santa Clara coach Vasco Matos is once again involved in the promotion to Serie A, after helping Casa Pia, as assistant coach, gain promotion to Serie A in 2021/2022.

After three years as Felipe Martins’ right-hand man, Matos took charge of the Santa Clara project this season as head coach, a position he held between 2017 and 2019 at Villafranquense, and in 2019/2020 at Alverca.

After 32 matches, the team is in second place in the table, one match behind and one point behind Nacional.

In addition to being the team that has conceded the fewest goals (19 in total), Santa Clara is also the team that has given up the fewest goals this season in the second division. Interestingly, the three defeats were at home, 1-0, against Mafra, Nacional and Pacos de Ferreira.