Ramírez Hat-Trick Not Enough as Nacional and Santa Clara Share 3-3 Island Derby

Six goals, a hat-trick and a heart-stopping leveller in added time turned this weekend’s island derby into the kind of spectacle that reminds fans why Portuguese football rarely needs the big-city lights to deliver drama. From a nightmare opening quarter for the home side to a Venezuelan-fuelled comeback and a final twist when the clock was almost out, Nacional and Santa Clara left the Choupana crowd equal parts breathless and frustrated.

What mattered most in 20 seconds

• Island bragging rights ended all square after a 3-3 roller-coaster.

• Jesús Ramírez signed a dazzling hat-trick but still had to settle for a point.

• Santa Clara led 2-0 early and rescued the draw at 90+6.

• Coaches disagreed on whether the stalemate felt like a win or a warning.

Why this island derby still resonates

Madeirenses and Açorianos might be separated by more than 1 000 km of Atlantic, yet every meeting between Nacional and Santa Clara renews a rivalry rooted in geography and identity. In a league where Lisbon and Porto brands dominate headlines, the so-called clássico das ilhas gives peripheral communities their moment at centre stage, filling bars from Funchal to Ponta Delgada with friendly taunts and, occasionally, a few groans at referees. Sunday’s chapter mattered even more because both clubs are navigating transition seasons—new managers, tight budgets and the ever-present need to prove they belong in the top flight.

Ramírez steals the show

When your team concedes twice in 15 minutes, you pray for someone to grab the match by the collar. Jesús Ramírez obliged. The Venezuelan striker reduced the arrears with a smart swivel finish, levelled from the spot before the break and—just five minutes into the second half—completed his hat-trick with a poacher’s header. By then the hillside stadium crackled with the belief that Nacional had yanked momentum for good. Ramírez’s tally now sits at 9 league goals, a welcome statistic for a side that too often leans on set-pieces for scoring joy.

Tactical pendulum: from collapse to counter-punch

Santa Clara’s early supremacy was built on high pressing, rapid switches and clever positioning from Vinícius Lopes and Paulo Victor, whose goals punished sloppy exits by the home defence. Yet once Nacional escaped the press, the visitors lost shape. Coach Manuel Machado dropped his double pivot deeper, inviting Santa Clara to over-commit before launching direct balls into the channel where Ramírez thrived. The Açorianos adjusted after the hour, reintroducing a third centre-back and flooding the wings. The tactical gamble paid off deep in stoppage time when keeper Gabriel Batista joined a corner, distracted markers and opened the path for substitute Elias Manoel to stab in the 3-3.

What the coaches saw

Machado walked into the media room lamenting a ‘penalty gift’ missed earlier and an avoidable lapse on the final set-piece, yet praised his players’ ‘mental steel’ in flipping a 0-2 deficit. Across the corridor, Santa Clara’s Mário Silva skipped grand pronouncements, focusing instead on the character his bench displayed. He called the point ‘just reward for believing until the last whistle’—a subtle nod, perhaps, to critics who say his project lacks backbone outside the Azores.

Table maths and the road ahead

Because the Liga Portugal Betclic table remains bunched from mid-pack downwards, one draw hardly rewrites destinies. Even so, dropping two points at home keeps Nacional uncomfortably close to the relegation trapdoor, while Santa Clara inches toward its unofficial target of 40 points, the traditional survival line. Both sides now enter a gruelling run: Nacional travel to Guimarães, where Vitória seldom forgive defensive daydreams, and Santa Clara host Gil Vicente in a fixture that last season produced five goals and three red cards.

Key numbers at a glance

• 54 % possession for Santa Clara versus 46 % for Nacional

• 22 shots to 13, yet only a 2.04-to-1.81 edge in xG for the visitors

• 8 corners earned by the Açorianos, the final one proving priceless

• 8 yellow cards shared in a match played at altitude and high pulse

• 5 shots on target for Nacional, three of them ending in the net—efficiency embodied

Three days later the buzz on Madeira’s cafés is less about what went wrong and more about how, for 95 minutes plus change, two island clubs reminded the mainland giants that passion is not a monopoly. Next chapter: same ocean, same rivalry, different island.