“Olá” again, readers. My Football Manager 2020 series with Sporting CP is about to kick off with earnest, with our opening matches in the Primeira Liga, the Europa League, and – of course – the Taça da Liga.
In case you missed it last time, you can read the first chapter of this new story right here. In that, I looked at the various players at my disposal and played through the curtain-raising Supertaça (the Portuguese Community Shield, basically).
But now it’s time for the serious business to begin. By the way, if you’re wondering why there’s a silly image of Jenna Coleman wearing a Father Christmas hat while standing outside the Estádio de São Miguel in Ponta Delgada, all will become clear soon.
SANTA CLARA vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 1)
So, in case you couldn’t tell, our first league match of the season was away to Santa Clara. Located on the Azores (an island group in the North Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 kilometres west of mainland Portugal), the Açoreanos finished a respectable 10th last time out.
We couldn’t have wished for a better start, taking the lead after just nine minutes. Winger Jovane Cabral carried over his impressive pre-season form by prodding in a first-time cross from left-back Cristián Borja.
A couple of assists from Wendel then strengthened our advantage. First, he set up a first-time strike for fellow Brazilian midfielder Eduardo Henrique on the 15-minute mark. About 15 minutes later, his delightful cross into the box was thundered home by Jesé, who made an instant impact at the start of his loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
3-0 up at half-time and cruising to victory. But then this Football Manager veteran of 21 years made a rookie mistake – by praising my players when the job wasn’t done. That was just asking for trouble.
Predictably, Santa Clara came out fighting for the second half, pulling two goals back by the hour. Even worse could have followed in the 67th minute, as only a point-blank save from Luis Maximiano prevented substitute striker Crysan from completing their comeback.
We eventually finished our hosts off with a fourth goal in injury time, as Jesé headed in his second from Cabral’s byline cross. Despite almost being punished for our complacency, we went straight to the top of the league, as the only team to have won by more than one goal on the opening day. So far, so good…
SPORTING vs MARÍTIMO (Primeira Liga – Match 2)
…and then former Reading boss José Gomes took his Marítimo team to Sporting. The Verde-Rubros had been predicted to finish 8th this season, but they took the lead after just four minutes. Xadas’ free-kick caused mayhem in our box before Bebeto (not that one) left home fans bawling.
It was all smiles again in the 19th minute. Bruno Paulista evaded a slide tackle from Marítimo’s goalscoring right-back as he crossed to Andraz Sporar, who nodded home the leveller. That should have been the turning point, but we remained under pressure before the half-time whistle blew with us still at 1-1.
We took more risks in the second half, but failed to crack Marítimo’s defence open for the second time. Our most frustrating miss came on 68 minutes, when Cabral hit the post and the visitors’ defensive midfielder Renê Santos knocked the rebound behind before Sporar could reach it.
Then, with barely a minute to go, we shot ourselves in the foot. Centre-half Luís Neto clumsily clattered into the onrushing Xadas in the box, and then watched on as the on-loan Braga attacking midfielder converted the penalty. Marítimo had done what Santa Clara failed to do, by punishing my cockiness.
I’d left captain Sebastián Coates out of this match so he would be rested ahead of our upcoming visit to arch-rivals Porto. As it turned out, he would miss that game anyway after twisting his ankle in training. Lovely stuff.
PORTO vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 3)
A shaky start to my Sporting reign continued at the Estádio do Dragão, where Porto’s greater class shone through in a competitive encounter.
Both teams had opportunies early on, but it was Sérgio Conceição’s side who broke through after 28 minutes. Centre-half Iván Marcano got his head to a free-kick from Mexico winger Jesús Corona (DON’T say it), and winger Otávio got behind our defence to volley it home.
Having barely threatened the Dragoes in the first half, we put up more of a fight in the second, particularly after wing-back Marcos Acuña made his return from injury. Sporar and Jesé each found the net in the 68th and 72nd minutes respectively, but both were caught offside.
Porto then settled the game on 75 minutes, hitting us on the counter after Wendel was dispossessed mid-attack. Moussa Marega sliced a killer through-ball to strike partner Zé Luis, who brushed Neto aside and calmly finished when one-on-one with Maximiano. (Yes, contrary to popular belief, one-on-ones are scorable on FM20.)
Back-to-back defeats had left us in the bottom half, and already six points behind early pacesetters Benfica, who’d won their opening three games. If we didn’t win our next two home fixtures before the international break, I would probably be booking the next one-way flight back to England.
SPORTING vs VITÓRIA DE GUIMARÃES (Primeira Liga – Match 4)
After 20 minutes against Vitória de Guimarães, it looked like I would be booking those tickets sooner rather than later. Winger Rochinha volleyed in a cross from João Carlos Teixeira to leave us facing another home defeat.
Before long, I’d made some significant changes to the midfield triangle in my 4-3-3 to help us keep the ball better. Those changes certainly seemed to benefit defensive midfielder Idrissa Doumbia, who equalised in the 27th minute with a 20-yard rocket.
Four minutes later, our quick turnaround was complete. Cabral’s free-kick into the Vitória box was headed by Neto into the net-o (I’ll get my coat). After some shaky early-season performances, the Portugal defender had been redeemed with his first Sporting goal.
The Vimaranenses couldn’t come up with a response to our purple patch. One-time Holland winger – and Reading legend – Ola John came closest to an equaliser in second-half stoppage time, but we held on for a precious victory.
SPORTING vs PORTIMONENSE (Primeira Liga – Match 5)
We were much more convincing against winless Portimonense, having taken early control of proceedings with another free-kick goal. This time, the delivery came from Acuña and was finished by Jesé, who wasn’t the biggest aerial threat but still applied a clinical header.
After that, 20-year-old midfield playmaker Miguel Luís stole the show by playing a big role in our next two goals. The first came not long before half-time, when his cross was sidefooted home by the clinical Sporar.
The next one – just after the hour mark – was a thing of beauty. A string of first-time passes ended with Doumbia stroking the ball into the box for Miguel, who curled it into the top corner for a 3-0 lead! With that, the win was secured…
…but there would be no clean sheet. Portimonense came away with a consolation goal seven minutes from time, courtesy of an 83rd-minute header from 33-year-old ex-Colombia striker Jackson Martínez. Well, the game actually says Martínez is 32, but his birthday’s in October, so he’s a lot nearer 33 than he is 32. That’s a fact.
We finished August in 7th but were still playing catch-up with our undefeated rivals Benfica and Porto. Marítimo also remained unbeaten in 5th, which made me feel a little better about our shock defeat against them.
I just thought I’d show you this. Tiago Ilori earned his first cap for Nigeria aged 26, for which I congratulated the defender, and he didn’t kick up a fuss. This is actually pretty normal for me.
If your experiences are more like those out-of-context Football Manager memes that keep doing the rounds, then perhaps your players don’t trust you yet – or maybe you’re doing something very wrong. Just saying…
VITÓRIA DE SETÚBAL vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 6)
Following the internationals, we were victorious against Vitória for the second time in less than a fortnight. However, things weren’t straightforward in Setúbal. Luciano Vietto won us a penalty in the 12th minute, only for captain Jérémy Mathieu‘s spot-kick to be kept out by Giorgi Mikaradze.
Vitória’s Georgian goalkeeper was very tough to beat in the first half, as he made several blinding saves. Fortunately, we managed to expose a weakness in his defence in the 35th minute, when Jubal’s clearance from Borja’s cross went wrong. Vietto hoovered it up and crossed to Jesé, who planted his second headed goal in as many games.
Vietto followed his assist late in the first half with a goal early in the second. Miguel Luís sliced through the defence with a stunning 50-yard ball to the much-maligned Argentine, who breached the offside trap and then powered his shot past Mikaradze.
We were on track for three more points, and a couple of late Maximiano saves secured our first shut-out victory of the campaign. Team morale was high as we headed into our first Europa League group game. The UEFA gods had given us quite a favourable draw, as you can see here:
On paper, we should be heavy favourites to win Group I. Antwerp will probably be our toughest opponents, especially with veteran Belgian internationals Steven Defour and Kevin Mirallas in their ranks. Sparta Praha haven’t won the Czech league since 2014, but they won’t be pushovers either.
Our first match was at home to arguably the weakest team in the group. Maccabi Tel-Aviv won the Israeli championship last season under Vladimir Ivic (who’s now Watford manager in real-life), but the team’s biggest name outside their homeland is Nick Blackman. That says it all, really.
SPORTING vs MACCABI TEL-AVIV (Europa League – Group I, Match 1)
Sure enough, Maccabi were no match for us in Lisbon. The only reason for me to be disappointed at half-time was that we’d only scored once – with Sporar’s skilful finish from Yannick Bolasie‘s left-wing cross.
I fired my boys up at half-time and got an immediate response. When visiting winger Omer Atzili had a brain freeze on the ball, Cabral nicked it from his feet, dribbled into the box, and poked a shot through the keeper’s legs!
Maccabi briefly threatened to get back in the game, as they hit the post before ex-Reading forward Blackman came off the bench to cause problems for our defence. However, Doumbia put the result beyond doubt with a thunderous strike midway through the half. We went straight to the top of the group with Antwerp, who’d beaten our next opponents Sparta 1-0.
Ah yes, I thought things had been going too well! At least Maximiano wouldn’t have to miss too many big matches over the coming weeks, apart from perhaps the trip to Prague. Before that, though, attention turned back towards the league…
SPORTING vs TONDELA (Primeira Liga – Match 7)
…where we made light work of Tondela. On just his second start for Sporting, right-back Valentin Rosier created an early goal for Wendel, whose header crashed in off the bar.
Four minutes later, a mishap from Tondela keeper Cláudio Ramos made it even easier for us. Ramos took the ball out of his box, only for Vietto to nick it from his feet before dribbling towards an empty goal and tapping home! (You can watch the madness play out in full in the video below.)
Vietto also proved too smart for Pité in the 69th minute, drawing a penalty from the home wing-back. It was a pity, though, that Mathieu missed his second spot-kick of the season, firing this effort against the post.
Never mind, as Vietto did get us a third goal late on, scoring from the rebound after compatriot Acuña’s shot was parried by Ramos. Luciano even had time to go for a hat-trick, and though the woodwork denied him the match ball, Cabral was on hand to complete an impressive 4-0 win.
We then played first match in the group stage of the Taça da Liga. We were odds-on favourites to top a group that included three teams from the second-tier LigaPro – and it was just as well, as only the group winners would progress to the Semi Finals. Viseu and Académica would await us later in the year, but first up… were Covilhã.
COVILHÃ vs SPORTING (Taça da Liga – Round 3 Group A, Match 1)
This competition was low on my list of priorities, so I rotated heavily. Captain Coates made his first appearance in seven weeks, which he marked with an early headed goal from Mattheus Oliveira‘s free-kick.
If we thought things would be easy from then on, Covilhã would prove us wrong. A shocking late collapse saw us concede three goals in the space of six minutes, including a Borja own goal. Like I said, only the group winners progressed, so defeat in our first match just wouldn’t do.
We returned for the second half all fired up. 16-year-old forward Joelson Fernandes set up a goal for Mattheus just three minutes into his senior debut, while the in-form Miguel Luís erased the rest of our deficit five minutes later. Was a magnificent comeback on?
Nope. Covilhã pushed forward again to retake the lead before Miranda took time out from making BBC comedies to thrust in a 30-yard piledriver. Such fun.
MOREIRENSE vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 8)
The big boys returned for a trip to Moreirense, who had their best ever league finish of 6th last season. Jesé silenced an optimistic home crowd after just 16 minutes, curling in a 35-yard free-kick for his fifth goal of the campaign!
The rest of this match was a real battle. Vietto’s shooting wasn’t at the same level as it had been in recent weeks, while centre-forward Sporar was again struggling to make an impact.
Thankfully for us, our defence remained rock-solid against a Moreirense attack that spurned a few late chances to snatch a point. While our fifth successive league victory wasn’t our prettiest, it did produce a third clean sheet in a row – and that was cause for real optimism as September ended.
Despite our early slips against Marítimo and Porto, I’m satisfied with 3rd place at this stage in the season (though Braga can leapfrog us by winning their games in hand). Of course, if we’re to have any chance of winning the title, somebody needs to find a way of beating Benfica!
YOUTH WATCH
I will end most of my posts in this series by looking at some of the many young prospects coming through Sporting’s youth system. Today, I’ll be focussing on 17-year-old centre-half Eduardo Quaresma.
Like Joelson Fernandes, Eduardo made his senior Leões debut in the defeat to Covilhã. Despite only posting a match rating of 6.5, I thought his passing from the back was pretty impressive and that his tackling was strong. He just lost a few too many headers against the opposition’s imposing centre-forwards for my liking.
In terms of important attributes for a central defender, Quaresma scores 12+ in every area except Marking and Strength. He also has a Resolute personality, even without mentoring. Expect him to play more cup games this season before featuring in the league next term – unless the mega-rich Premier League giants steal him from us.
Despite the name, Eduardo is not related to the former Sporting starlet (and later Chelsea flop) Ricardo Quaresma. However, he does have a more impressive connection, being a distant relative of the legendary Brazilian attacking midfielder Zico.
And that will do it for Part 2. I must say it’s been quite fun playing and writing about Football Manager again, and I hope that’s come across in my writing so far.
I’ll be back with two more chapters next week (on Monday and Friday, as usual) as we enter the middle stages of my debut season in Lisbon. Can Sporting build on a promising start? Come back soon to find out!
Fuller FM 
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