1.7 The fall and rise of Bruno de Carvalho - The battle of Alcochete
In our last part we left you after the full time whistle had blown on the last game of the 2017/18 Liga season, a 2-1 defeat away to Marítimo which ensured that Sporting missed out on automatic qualification for the Champions League, but in truth failure to beat Benfica in the penultimate game had already sealed that fate. Because even if they'd won here Benfica had the better goal difference noting their head to head record read exactly the same after two draws. Jesus' record ended: Played 34, won 24, drawn 6, GF 63, GA 24. Benfica's read: won 25, drawn 6, lost 3, GF 80, GA 22. So if and when you hear or read others saying the Marítimo loss cost them qualification to the Champions League it clearly didn't because even if they'd have won in Madeira they'd still have finished second. But there we go… Anyways, they finished 3 points off Benfica who finishes in second. It was scant consolation that at least their biggest rivals hadn't won a fifth straight leagu...
