Braga sent FK Partizan crashing out of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 victory in Belgrade.
Poor Serbian side put to the sword at home
Braga sent FK Partizan crashing out of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 victory in their Group H contest in Belgrade.
A scrappy encounter which was desperately short on quality, particularly from the home side, was settled by Moises' looping header 10 minutes before the interval.
Domingos Paciencia's men took the lead when Luis Aguiar's curling free-kick into the penalty area was met by Moises, who took advantage of some slack marking to guide his effort over the helpless Vladimir Stojkovic and into the top corner.
Partizan barely created an opportunity worthy of note in the first half and although they improved somewhat after the break, they could not find a way past Felipe in the Portuguese side's goal.
The Serbian club have now failed to register a victory in 10 Champions League group games and are almost certain to finish rock bottom of Group H following four successive defeats in which they have scored just one goal.
Weak efforts
The Serbian champions threatened twice early on with Sasa Ilic bending a long-range free-kick wide before Cleo drew a good save from Luiz Felipe.
Home goalkeeper Stojkovic, who spent a brief spell at Braga three seasons ago, was called into action for the first time after 11 minutes when he held onto weak efforts from Luis Aguiar and Matheus.
Braga started to increase the pressure on the home goal and Aguiar fizzed a shot from the edge of the area just over.
Cesar drilled a 25-yard shot wide of the right post before the away side were rewarded for their spell of pressure with the game's opener after 35 minutes as Brazilian defender Moises headed powerfully into the top-left corner from 12 yards.
It was no more than the Portuguese side deserved and they were quickly back on the offensive a minute later as the dangerous Aguiar flashed in a shot that Mladen Krstajic blocked.
Impotent
Partizan were looking impotent as an attacking force, a fact underlined by striker Moreira just before half-time when he mis-hit a poor effort straight at Felipe.
Matheus, who scored the second in Braga's win over Partizan a fortnight ago, went close to adding his name to the scoresheet again after 55 minutes when he drilled a low shot that Stojkovic tipped away.
Partizan started to show some sign of finding a way back as the game reached the hour mark, although Ivica Iliev harmlessly shot into the arms of Felipe.
Radosav Petrovic fired a warning shot with a scorching 30-yard drive that flew past the right-hand post before Felipe made the save of the game to keep out a Moreira volley from close range.
Petrovic then flashed two efforts wide late on as the Serbian side made a late rally, but they were unable to snatch their first point of the competition.
| FK Partizan Belgrade |
Team Statistics |
Sporting Braga |
| 0 |
Goals |
1 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 4 |
Shots on Target |
5 |
| 4 |
Shots off Target |
7 |
| 8 |
Blocked Shots |
2 |
| 8 |
Corners |
4 |
| 13 |
Fouls |
20 |
| 1 |
Offsides |
0 |
| 3 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 75.2 |
Passing Success |
64.1 |
| 34 |
Tackles |
22 |
| 82.4 |
Tackles Success |
95.5 |
| 62.8 |
Possession |
37.2 |
| 51.1 |
Territorial Advantage |
48.9 |
|
