After months of unpaid wages, 16 players for Portuguese Liga club Leiria walked out on the team Friday. That left the last place club already doomed to relegation with just eight players available for Sunday's match against Feirense and since the�minimum�number of footballers required to play a match is seven, the game was played.
With four players on loan from other clubs (three from Benfica), the Leiria eight actually held off Feirense for 45 minutes before they finally scored a goal and went on to beat their undermanned opponents 4-0. It was a noble effort from the Leiria players, who managed to keep the club from being hit with financial penalties and disciplinary action by avoiding a forfeited match. Next week, however, whatever Leiria players are left will have to travel to the Estadio da Luz to play second-place Benfica and that could get ugly.
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