Vaz Té saves the day for Bolton
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Article summary
Vitória SC 1-1 Bolton Wanderers FC Substitute Ricardo Vaz Té salvaged a point for Bolton on his return to his native Portugal.
Article body
Portuguese substitute Ricardo Vaz Té salvaged a point for Bolton Wanderers FC as their UEFA Cup Group H fixture at Vitória SC came to a dramatic conclusion.
Diving header
The 19-year-old found the target with three minutes remaining, finishing with a fierce drive after a neat lay-off from El Hadji Diouf. The game had burst into life just two minutes earlier as striker Marek Saganowski opened the scoring with a tremendous diving header for Guimarães.
Early scare
Bolton had an early scare after four minutes as Dário Monteiro burst into the area only to see his shot smothered by goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen, and the home side maintained the pressure with Bolton's Finnish No1 being forced to field another shot, this time from Saganowski, after 12 minutes.
Near miss
The Polish forward tested Jääskeläinen again with another decent shot ten minutes later before Bolton finally produced their first meaningful attack of the game just past the half-hour. Abdoulaye Faye flicked on a long header for Jay-Jay Okocha, who laid the ball on for Kevin Nolan to shoot just wide.
Jääskeläinen tested
Nonetheless it was Guimarães who started the second half looking the livelier of the two sides, and Neca hit a long-range shot just over the bar to signal the Portuguese side's intentions. The same player gave Jääskeläinen an even sterner test after 57 minutes, drawing a fine save from the goalkeeper with a fierce shot.
Under pressure
As Bolton came under pressure, Diouf came on for Mexican srtriker Jared Borgetti. The visitors looked more lively, with Stylianos Giannakopoulos receiving a fine ball from Okocha after 76 minutes only to see his shot blocked by diving Guimarães goalkeeper Paiva.
Grandstand finish
However, when Saganowski ghosted beyond the last defender to head Targino's floated cross from the left past the stranded Jääskeläinen it seemed to be all over for Bolton. But it was Vaz Té, returning to his home country, who was to have the final say as his fine finish rescued a point for the visitors.
