Arrived in Madeira yesterday and wandered up to Rubis bar to watch the last half hour of the rescheduled Nacional v Tondela match. Slapped my forehead as I saw Nacional were a man down and losing 1-0, to establish my sympathy with the locals. Within 8 minutes Nacional equalised. I celebrated. In the 5th minute of 8 extra time a Tondela forward was booked for diving in the penalty area, but the VAR called the ref to the screen. After viewing the incident at least 5 times he rescinded the card and awarded a penalty. Disaster! I acted out a dive to my right to indicate what the goalie should do and praise be, after flicking his eyes left to influence the kicker, he dived right and saved it. By now I was attracting some attention from the locals, some chattering rapidly at me. Saying "Desculpe, nao falo Portuguese, so Ingles." (which I hope means "Sorry, I don't speak Portuguese, only English.") only seemed to encourage them to speak more rapidly. Within a minute of the save Nacional drove up field and scored to lead 2-1 in the 99th minute. Cheers all round! More to come, though. 90+13 minutes, a Tondela defender rugby tackled a Nacional forward in the penalty area and was sent off. Ramirez made no mistake from the spot and the match ended Nacional 3, Tondela 1.
I seem to have achieved talisman status in Rubis!
