A great surprise, only topped by the sensational Famalicão, this season. Gil Vicente was back at top flight due to a court decision, and no one could expect such a performance from a team that was playing third tier football one year ago.
Coach Vítor Oliveira, a club favourite, is better known from promoting teams from second division to first than to be a competent leader at top flight level, but surely did he deliver this time around!
Gil built a team made almost of completely unknown players and certainly very few would predict that some of them would be hot names for the next summer transfer window.
‘Galos’ played an interesting football, not being shy with the ball, especially when playing at home. Most of all, Galos were always a very competitive side, even during their worst period (from round 2 to 9).
The arrival of experienced and talented Rúben Ribeiro was a big hit, as it added creativity to an attack that was mostly fast and direct, but barely knew when to pause and think.
Sandro Lima was hot in front of the goal, Lourency was irregular, but showed his talent quite often; Denis showed safe hands, while Rodrigão and Henrique were good values in defence.
Kraev’s playmaking talent was the biggest surprise of all, nevertheless. The Bulgarian immediately signed his name as the league’s most impressive new player and is definitely one to watch out.
The biggest challenge will be to keep this squad from total disbanding, which won’t be very easy to do. Especially since the steersman Oliveira will be leaving.
