I’m now into the 10th chapter of my Sporting CP adventure, but the last 18 months in Lisbon have really turned my mind into scrambled eggs. I feel like I’ve tried almost every tactical trick in the book to get this team firing consistently, particularly in the last installment!
But as 2020 nears its conclusion and 2021 approaches, it seems that Sporting have hit some good mid-season form at last. We’re still fighting hard in all four competitions, and today’s chapter could end with us winning the Taça da Liga. Can we pull it off?
SPORTING vs BENFICA (Primeira Liga – Match 13)
I begin this chapter with the first ‘Eternal Derby’ of the season, at the Estádio José Alvalade. We were just six points behind Primeira Liga leaders Benfica, and we were out for vengeance following the 5-1 humiliation at the Estádio da Luz in April which effectively decided last season’s title race.
Now THAT’S vengeance! We fearlessly attacked Benfica from the start, and though victory was a while in coming, we did eventually send out the statement – Lisbon is green.
Andraz Sporar had recently been asked to start more games, so I gave him a go up top here. The Slovene was a bit unlucky not to score in the first half, having a couple of promising headers saved by Águias goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos.
Benfica’s best chance to break the deadlock also came from a header, early in the second half. Tiago Dantas’ free-kick found the head of his fellow Portugal Under-21s midfielder David Tavares, whose effort was well caught by Luís Maximiano.
The match would be decided by another exciting youngster in the 71st minute. Jovane Cabral had been sensational out wide this season, and his ninth goal of the season was his best yet. After taking the ball from Wendel just inside Benfica’s half, Cabral dribbled between centre-backs Stefan Savic and Eric Dier as he entered the penalty box. A cool low finish beat Vlachodimos and sent Sporting fans into ecstasy!
That victory narrowed our deficit on the league leaders to just three points. It also meant spirits remained high as we hosted Austria Wien in our final Europa League group game, where victory would secure top spot.
SPORTING vs AUSTRIA WIEN (Europa League – Group C, Match 6)
We blew it. This was another case of us following up a sensational performance with a mediocre one, as we returned to our wasteful old ways.
To be fair, I deserved some blame for fielding a weakened team, but some of those players who came in didn’t do themselves justice. I’m mainly talking about Pedro Mendes, who didn’t lead the line effectively, and Joelson Fernandes, who had several shots but never really worked the keeper too hard.
Miguel Luís was a midfield rose amongst several thorns, making several key passes that always had the Austria Wien defence on high alert. Had his playmaking skills been complemented by better finishing from other players, perhaps we would’ve won.
Left-back Marcos Acuña came on for the second half to provide some extra quality, but just before the end, he sprained his knee ligaments in a tackle from Dominik Prokop. Acuña wouldn’t play again until the new year.
Then, to make matters worse, Austria Wien went up the other end to score a last-minute stoppage-time winner against the run of play. Prokop’s through-ball to namesake Dominik Fitz was followed by a powerful strike that left me having a fit of frustration.
That was a costly slip, as Midtjylland had beaten Krasnodar 2-1 to steal 1st place – and a seeding for the Round of 32. They were subsequently drawn against Club Brugge, whereas we were unseeded and got…
…Marseille. One of the top teams in Ligue 1, whose squad included Dimitri Payet, Juan Mata and Florian Thauvin.
[Sigh] I guess our only hopes of silverware lie at home, then…
SPORTING vs BOAVISTA (Taça de Portugal – Round 5)
At least we were still going strong in the Taça de Portugal, where we brushed Boavista aside to reach the Quarter Finals. Mind you, our second 4-0 win over the Panteras Negras this season wasn’t as simple as the first.
Following several failed scoring attempts in the first half, we needed a big stroke of luck to break the deadlock just before half-time. Wendel’s drive was blocked by a crouching header from Gustavo Sauer, whose clearance only went to Sporar. This was a great opportunity for Andraz to prove his worth, and a powerful follow-up finish did just that!
Sporar scored a second goal just six minutes after the second half kicked off. The speedy striker broke free of his marker to bury a central through-ball from Reinier, whose dominant playmaking performance was belying his 18 years.
Then, to cap off a sensational display, Sporar set up a couple of goals for other players. Barely a minute after teenager Fernandes headed in a right-wing cross from the Slovene, Wendel drove in a 20-yarder from his left-wing pass. Those goals sealed us a last-eight tie at home to Tondela.
In sadder news, centre-back Luís Neto was ruled out until around March with a serious hip injury. I had planned to phase out the 32-year-old veteran anyway, with a view to selling him in the summer, but this would surely only hasten his demise.
On the flip side, this would free up more opportunities for 18-year-old Eduardo Quaresma, who was steadily developing into a fine top-flight defender.
PAÇOS DE FERREIRA vs SPORTING (Taça da Liga – Round 3 Group C, Match 3)
We then finished our Taça da Liga group campaign, having already secured a Semi Final place. Our second-string team fell behind to Paços de Ferreira after 21 minutes, as midfielder Carlos Benavídez headed in a free-kick from winger Hélder Ferreira.
It took us a long time to get back on terms. Five minutes from time, substitute right-back Valentin Rosier supplied a killer cross to Mendes, whose equalising header looked to have got us through the group phase unbeaten.
However, there would be another late twist, as Paços stole victory in the 89th minute. Ferreira had a shot blocked by vice-captain João Palhinha (making a rare appearance at centre-half). The strike caught out goalkeeper Renan Ribeiro, whose dive left the goal wide open for Benavídez to bury the rebound into.
Eh, the defeat didn’t matter too much. We were still assured of a mid-January trip to Guimarães for the competition’s finals week, where we would play Benfica in a repeat of last year’s Semi Final. Facing each other in the second Semi were Famalicão (who’d surprisingly topped Porto’s group) and Braga.
SPORTING vs MARÍTIMO (Primeira Liga – Match 14)
Having started December with a revenge win, we then rounded off 2020 with another! José Gomes’ Marítimo were enjoying another impressive campaign in 6th, but our old nemeses from last season couldn’t even manage a shot on target against us this time!
At first, Gomes’ tactics proved a handful for us, as we struggled to tear down his defensive wall. The first crack eventually emerged on 66 minutes, when a couple of clumsy tackles on Wendel saw Marítimo’s holding midfielder Alfa Semedo receive his second booking of the night.
I then switched tactics from the 4-3-3 to the more direct 4-2-4 as I looked to bulldoze through the rest of the wall. The breakthrough came around 15 minutes from full-time, as Sporar’s cross to the far post was headed in by substitute Mattheus Oliveira.
Another goal followed in the 88th minute. Luiz Phellype flicked a Reinier cross onto Cabral, whose attempt to reach double figures was blocked by a defender. Fortunately, Big Phil lashed in the rebound to match Jovane’s nine-goal haul this term – and leave the Primeira Liga standings as follows:
There had been a change at the top, with Porto leapfrogging Benfica courtesy of their win at the Estádio da Luz in November. We had two games in hand on the leaders, though – and an opportunity to get back to within three points of them.
VITÓRIA DE SETÚBAL vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 15)
2021 began brightly for me, as I won my second Manager of the Month award. One man who didn’t offer his congratulations was Julio Velázquez – the head coach of our next opponents, relegation-threatened Vitória de Setúbal. So he thinks his boys can get a good result against mine, eh?
Yeah, right! Admittedly, we left it very late to put Vitória to bed after a dominant performance, but at least we made Velázquez eat his words.
Ivan Petryak had a fantastic opportunity to score in the 12th minute, when the Ukrainian forward burst past two defenders to go through on goal. Unfortunately, a fierce shot over the goalkeeper struck the crossbar and ricocheted to the other side of the pitch.
Petryak is a determined fellow, though – like most of our players, and our opening goal in the final minute of normal time typified that. After an initial cross was blocked, Ivan found Reinier at the second attempt. Reinier’s shot was then closed down, but substitute midfielder Manuel Ugarte ran onto the follow-up and hammered it in!
We then rubbed salt into Vitória’s wounds by grabbing a second goal deep into stoppage time, as Petryak’s corner was flicked into the net by centre-half Eray Cömert! I wonder what our good friend Julio has to say about that!
Erm… not a lot, I take it!
SPORTING vs PAÇOS DE FERREIRA (Primeira Liga – Match 16)
A few days later, we hosted mid-table Paços de Ferreira in what proved to be a surprisingly tight affair.
I honestly thought we had edged the first half, with Fernandes proving particularly unlucky with several attempts to grab his first league goal. Sadly, Paços pinched a goal on the stroke of half-time, as Adriano Castanheira’s free-kick led to a goalmouth scramble which ended with left-back Alexis Soto bundling the ball over the line.
The Castores defended their lead very strongly, and as another home defeat loomed, I switched back to the 4-2-4 – with Fernandes supporting substitute Sporar up front. Andraz’ pace and intelligence would prove key, as he evaded his markers to bury a late centre from Cabral and salvage a point.
That being said, that felt more like two points lost than one gained – especially as Benfica, Braga and Porto had all won. If we weren’t careful, the top three would soon move clear of us, even taking our games in hand into account.
SPORTING vs TONDELA (Taça de Portugal – Quarter Final)
I expected a better performance in the Taça de Portugal, but we started our Quarter Final shakily. Tondela enjoyed the lion’s share of possession away from home, so we had to hold our nerve, stay patient, and wait for that opening.
Our moment came six minutes from half-time. After Kévin Rodrigues‘ cross from the left was cleared, Cabral quickly retrieved the ball and laid it off to Wendel. The box-to-box midfielder then struck a speculative effort that just evaded Tondela keeper Luis Ribeiro.
Renan Ribeiro had a more comfortable evening in the Sporting goal than his namesake, not facing a single shot in target from the misfiring Tondelenses. We therefore enjoyed a smooth passage to the Semis, as Cömert stamped our tickets by heading in another late corner – this time from Mattheus.
We were now hot favourites to win the Taça, as Porto had been eliminated by Marítimo – thanks to a penalty from on-loan Sporting forward Bruno Tavares. Funnily enough, we would play Marítimo in the two-legged Semi Finals, with the victors facing either Vitória de Setúbal or Vitória de Guimarães in May’s Final.
FEIRENSE vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 17)
The final rounds of the Taça da Liga were now on the horizon. Ahead of our Semi Final against Benfica, a rotated Leões side laboured to victory at struggling Feirense.
I gave Mendes his first league start, and he justified his selection by scoring just before the half-hour. Feirense defender Guilherme Ramos intercepted a flick-on from Petryak, but Pedro closed down his attempted back-pass to keeper Caio Secco and then then gobbled up an easy chance.
Alas, our failure to quickly solidify that lead would be punished early in the second half. Ramos was obviously determined to make up for his earlier error, as the former Sporting youth product fired in a corner from Feliz to draw the Fogaceiros level.
We were again struggling to beat struggling opposition, so I again switched to 4-2-4 late on. I also sent Reinier on, hoping his prodigious qualities would unlock Feirense. The substitution paid off two minutes from the end, as Reinier’s cut-back to the edge of the area found the on-rushing Palhinha, who blasted in the winner!
Meanwhile, I sent Ugarte out on loan to Boavista for the rest of the season. The Uruguayan teenager was our third-choice defensive midfielder behind Palhinha and Idrissa Doumbia, so he needed extra gametime to speed up his development. Hopefully a spell with the Black Panthers will bring out the best in him.
BENFICA vs SPORTING (Taça da Liga – Semi Final)
History then repeated itself in our Taça da Liga Semi. The venue might have been different, but the result was the same – a 1-0 win for Benfica, which sent them through to the Final at our expense.
In truth, we never recovered from making a shocking start, conceding after just five minutes. Rosier blocked a cross from Jhojan Julio but could only deflect it to Erik Botheim, whose powerful first-time finish showed that Norway had more than one incredibly gifted young striker.
We struggled to create equalising chances in the first half, with playmaker Miguel Luís looking particularly ineffective as he continued to suffer from ‘second season syndrome’. Reinier came off the bench for the second period but couldn’t make a major difference either.
Bruno Lage’s defence stayed rock-solid throughout the match, with Vlachodimos making a couple of late saves from Quaresma and Wendel to keep us at bay. The Águias would go on to successfully defend their cup, beating Braga on penalties after a goalless Final.
SPORTING vs RIO AVE (Primeira Liga – Match 18)
As our Lisbon rivals added another trophy to their collection, we toiled to another disappointing home draw in the league. In fairness, Rio Ave were 7th and had already taken a point off us in the reverse fixture, so I was always expecting a battle.
According to the Primeira Liga stats, we’d created far more ‘chances’ than any other team in the division, but also had one of the worst shot conversion rates. It wasn’t hard to understand why, as we failed to work the visiting defence hard enough, having several long-range shots blocked and only managing a few tame efforts inside the box.
It didn’t help that Reinier twisted his knee in a 30th-minute tackle from Rio Ave’s star striker Mehdi Taremi and was taken off shortly afterwards. Taremi didn’t get off completely unscathed, though, and his impact for the Vilacondenses was limited thereafter.
Suffice to say, I was not best pleased with that result. After berating my players at the final whistle, I angrily demanded a much better performance in our next home league game.
SPORTING vs MOREIRENSE (Primeira Liga – Match 19)
Luiz Phellype obliged, putting Moreirense to the sword in the first half-hour. He struck the first blow after just eight minutes, prodding in a square ball from Petryak on the edge of the six-yard box.
Those two combined to devastating effect again in the 29th minute. Petryak closed down Moreirense right-back Rafael Franco near the halfway line and then dribbled deep into the opposition half. He then released Luiz Phellype with a fantastic through-ball, which the big Brazilian drilled home.
Though we continued to bully our lowly opponents, there would be no hat-trick for Big Phil, who was rested for the final 20 minutes or so. There would also be no goal for Ivan, whose wastefulness in front of goal was the only disappointment of an otherwise outstanding left-wing performance.
A comfortable 2-0 win looked certain when the Cónegos put a spanner in the works, with Argentine centre-half Federico Rasmussen pulling a goal back on 88 minutes. Fortunately, his compatriot Rodrigo Battaglia restored our cushion late on, thrashing in a 20-yarder from substitute Mendes’ assist to seal the points.
PORTO vs SPORTING (Primeira Liga – Match 20)
To finish off January, we travelled to the Estádio do Dragão for a huge title clash. Victory at Porto would move us to within a point of the Dragões, but anything else would see us slip further adrift of the top three.
Well, how do you like that, Marco Silva? The odds were stacked against us, but our best performance of the season saw us claim a first away win against a ‘Big Three’ rival under my management.
Rodrigues put Porto keeper Agustin Marchesín on alert with a promising strike in the second minute. However, the Argentina international was helpless to keep out an impressive 27th-minute finish from the in-form Luiz Phellype, who powered in a low cross from the fit-again Reinier.
Maximiano retained our lead by stopping Moussa Marega’s volley just before half-time. That save looked even more important in the 61st minute, when our wingers doubled our lead in stylish fashion. Cabral and Vietto exchanged crosses with one another before Jovane got above Gonzalo Montiel to head in his 10th goal of the campaign!
Of course, Porto led 2-0 at the Alvalade in the reverse fixture, only for us to fight back late on and win 3-2. The Dragões pulled out all the stops to try and mount a similar surge – but Maximiano pulled off all the stops. Shoya Nakajima, Danilo Pereira, Otávio… they were all thwarted by our excellent young custodian as he secured us a priceless shutout win!
Gosh, it’s tight at the top! Just four points separate the top four as we head into February, with Braga currently leading the way as they seek to end the Big Three’s dominance and claim their first ever Primeira Liga title. But who’s to say we won’t be celebrating in May if we can extend our 13-match unbeaten league run even further?
YOUTH WATCH
For today’s Youth Watch, I thought I’d update you on the progress of our French prospect Isaac Lihadji. The left-footed inside-forward had developed pretty well in our Under-23s squad, getting six league goals and recording an average match rating of 7.27.
At this stage in Isaac’s career, though, I think he’s ready for some regular first-team football. He’ll be finishing the season on loan at a Farense side chasing promotion from the LigaPro.
We looked at attacking midfielder Gonçalo Batalha in the last chapter, and he has been sent on loan to German second-tier side Bochum. I’ll keep tabs on Gonçalo’s performances over the next few months to see if he’ll be ready for a top-division loan next season, or even a direct promotion to our first-team.
In terms of our current Primeira Liga loanees, there’ve been some promising developments. Tavares has had a fair bit of gametime at Marítimo, scoring three goals in 11 league outings to go with that Taça match-winner at Porto. Interestingly, José Gomes prefers to play Bruno up front rather than on the wings… but I suppose he could have a long-term future as a pressing forward.
Meanwhile, Daniel Bragança has been sensational at Braga. The 21-year-old playmaker has averaged 7.54 in 19 PL games for the Arsenalistas and is arguably one of the main reasons why they’re in the title race. When Daniel returns to Sporting in the summer, he’ll almost certainly go straight into the team as one of our most important midfielders.
Fellow midfielder Rodrigo Fernandes has also taken well to regular top-flight football with Boavista (21 games, AR 7.03), though a hamstring injury has disrupted centre-half Gonçalo Inácio‘s progress at Tondela (11 games, AR 6.77). Wingers Matheus Nunes and Dimitar Mitrovski have failed to impress at Vitória de Setúbal or Feirense respectively and are probably worth writing off.
Okay, so we’re not yet scoring as many goals as I feel like we could be, but we still end today’s chapter in a pretty good position.
Please join me again on Monday, where we’ll aim to make further progress in the Primeira Liga and the Europa League – and hopefully book our place in the Taça de Portugal Final.
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