Paciência scores twice in two minutes, and Nacional still leave the Azores with a point
Santa Clara were 2-0 up after 21 minutes of the new Portuguese season and level by half-time. The islanders’ derby that closed round one finished 2-2.
Aug 11, 2026
Gonçalo Paciência needed two minutes on Monday night to make the first round of the Portuguese league look straightforward for Santa Clara. He then spent the next 24 minutes watching Nacional take the whole thing back. The islanders’ derby that closed the first round of Liga Portugal finished 2-2 at the Estádio de São Miguel, with all four goals scored inside the first half, and it ended in the small hours India time.
Two goals in two minutes
Paciência scored in the 19th minute and again in the 21st. Santa Clara had started the more settled of the two, which was no great surprise given Petit’s side had gone through pre-season unbeaten with five wins and two draws, while Nacional had won one of seven.
The centre-forward is 32 and has had the kind of career that ends up in a lot of countries. Porto, then Eintracht Frankfurt, Schalke, Celta Vigo, Bochum and a spell at Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan, before he signed for Santa Clara in January. Two goals in the opening round leaves him top of the Portuguese scoring charts after one match, which is a sentence that will not survive the weekend but is true this morning.
Nacional had a reply ready
The visitors got back into it from the spot. Markus Jensen won a penalty in the 34th minute, and Igor Liziero put it away in the 36th.
The equaliser came on the stroke of half-time. Miguel Baeza finished in the 45th minute to send both sides in level, and for João Gião it was a useful first competitive night in charge at Nacional after replacing Tiago Margarido in the summer. Recovering from 2-0 down away from home, on an island roughly 1,000 kilometres from your own, is not the worst way to start.
A second half nobody won
The second half produced nothing. No goals, no red cards, and a scoreline that had already been settled before the interval. Santa Clara will look at two points dropped at home in a fixture they had controlled; Nacional will take a point off a side that beat them 2-0 in Ponta Delgada in May, a result that kept them scrapping for survival to the end of the season.
Both clubs spend every season fighting the table and the flight schedule. Santa Clara are based in Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Nacional in Funchal on Madeira, and every away trip either of them makes begins at an airport. Santa Clara finished 13th last season on 36 points, Nacional 14th on 34. A point apiece in the first game will not decide anything, but the shape of the night, one side scoring twice quickly and the other one refusing to fold, tells you something about both.
The second round starts on Friday. Santa Clara go to Académico de Viseu on 15 August, Nacional host Estoril Praia on 16 August.