GD Chaves 0 Sporting CP 3

GD Chaves v Sporting CP
January 13^th, 2024
Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira
Matchday 17

The Warm Up

When the final whistle blows on tonight’s match it will officially mark the halfway point of the league season. Known in the trade as a Bon Jovi because we’re half way there and living on a prayer. It’s worth noting that for the second half of the season Sporting will face 9 away games compared to 8 at home. Whereas for our cross city rivals and nearest challengers for the title, they’ll have the advantage with those numbers reversed though it’s worth noting they’ll need to come to both us and Porto in that run in. For now at least there is no morass, just keep winning. It doesn’t have to be pretty but it does have to result in three points and come the second Dérbi and Clássico of the season we need to ensure at the very minimum they’re not marked in defeat.

Tuesdays 4-0 win against Tondela carried with it an air of malaise. In truth only one or two players could lay claim to have played well which quite frankly may sound as ridiculous given the scoreline to anyone reading this who didn’t watch the game. There is a large element of truth to it though. Passes and shots were in the main wayward and our success owed the benefit of Tondela seemingly having practised prior to the game with the use of trampolines to perfect that level of bad first touch for which we punished them time and time again. The biggest fear for me right now (and yes ever the pessimist) is the paradigm of Amorim’s tactics. There is only ever a choice of two formations employed and seemingly never a plan C. The only change being his foot soldiers carrying out his orders on the pitch. Fair play if it works out and he carries us to a second league title and maybe more. The worry of course remains that it can’t be that hard to plan something to counteract his chosen formation. How long before we get found out if in fact we ever are? Amorim’s ability to transition that into long-term success for me is questionable. He’s long had admirers and potential suitors and one surmises that there will come a summer when someone will pay his release clause. At that point I’ll wait and see whether my theory about him being Emperor’s New Clothes stands up. I stand by my conviction that since I have followed Sporting, Marco Silva is by far the best coach we’ve employed. Just a shame he is now beyond reach in terms of his annual salary. However all told this season does feel redolent of when we won the title previously and one can only hope that the gods of football show mercy and good will upon us in the second half of the season. Failing that at least a cup win and moreover a Dérbi win so ineffable that one can give you all a rest from my eternal dribble.

What we need ahead of each game is that sense of equanimity. Broad shoulders from the likes of Coates who has been there, done and it and to use the age old I – got the T shirt. Where once Reis was caprice he seems to have become wiser to the summer’s rule changes faster that most. Gone is that argumentative streak, that inclination to shit housery which is maybe a politer way of saying the diving has vanished from his game. That doesn’t mean there aren’t those who have felt my opprobrium in the first half of this season. Gonçalves has massively under delivered but I guess his saving grace is that in season’s previous he set such high standards. Maybe therefore it is I who needs to maybe reframe my metrics and recalibrate one’s expectations. Nuno Santos has shown flashes of brilliance but all too often has contributed little. Even discounting for the emergence of Geny on the right, when he alone has been tasked of providing the forward attacking option from the left he’s been found sadly lacking. Apologies this is becoming one of my famous circumlocutions, I’ll try get back to the game at hand…

Let us not forget our opponents beat us 2-0 at home last season whilst away we won 3-2, though that scoreline was flattered by their second goal coming in the 96th minute and a Chermiti penalty miss in the 85th minute which could have left the scoreline with a vastly different complexion if the two were reversed. Their home record thus has seen them average a point a game after their opening 7 games; 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats. At the time of writing (Thursday the 11th) that represents the third worst home record ahead of only that of Vizela and Casa Pia. What we should get however is an entertaining game of football. We’ve seen six games between tonight’s opponents with both teams scoring and over 2.5 goals in each. So far the seven results have been;

2-4
1-2
2-2
4-2
0-2
2-1
1-3

So with no score repeated it really could be anything. Let’s just hope it’s not 0-0 or 1-1. 0-1 would do well enough but given Sporting have scored 9 in 2 games you’d expect them to at least equal the 2 scored in 6 of those games by the away side.

Off the field rumours continue unabated but some new club names and players thrown into the mixing bowl. Hjulmand the subject of an alleged bid from Manchester United. Marcus Edwards being looked at by West Ham despite the London club admitting they’ve not got a pot to piss in being close to the wire with FFP regulations. One would suggest that Manchester United would have been in the same position but their transfer fund may well be boosted by the possibility of new share holder Jim Radcliffe investing money into the club coffers direct which would allow some degree of movement in the markets but whether that would stretch to a large fee for Hjulmand remains to be seen. Something with some actual credence is Sporting’s knock back of Marseille’s approach for Trincão and they look all set to boost their midfield with the signing of Koba Koindredi currently on loan at Estoril.

The money markets

Chaves 8/1 11.1% probability chance of win
Sporting 1 / 4 80% probability chance of win
11/8 Sporting Win either half, BTS, plus two goals 

Team News

Adán comes back in for Israel in goal. Reis and Quaresma return to the back three in place of Neto and Rafael with Inácio once more in the centre of the three. Bragança drops to the bench as Hjulmand sits alongside Gonçalves in the centre. Esgaio and Nuno Santos retain their positions on the flank. Up front as you were with the 4-0 win against Tondela; Gyökeres, Trincão and Paulinho. Edwards is named on the bench despite having spent the week suffering from flu. Coates is still not fit enough to start but again is named amongst the substitutes.

First Half

Sporting get the game under way kicking left to right in awful conditions as torrential rain pours down on the players. Let’s hope were not in for a repeat of the 3-2 away defeat to Vitória in similar conditions earlier last month.

10 Double chance for Sporting first from a header from Gyökeres from six yards and the follow up from Esgaio which was saved

11 Sporting go close again as Gyökeres sees two shots blocked from close range and a third from Trincão by the defence. Chaves leading a charmed life at the back.

12 Paulinho header from six yards saved by the keeper though the flag was raised for offside. In drier conditions you’d fancy we’d be 1-0 up by now

19 Fast counter attack from his own half by Gyökeres on the left whose ball across found Gonçalves. His shot from the edge of the D goes through a defenders legs and agonisingly wide of the left post

23 Free kick awarded for a foul on the edge of the Chaves box by Hjulmand on Morin. He clearly felt that was the other way around as he remonstrates with the referee

26 Mistake from a Chaves defender who tries to play a back pass to his keeper from the half way line but the ball got stuck in the surface water a considerable distance away from goal. Gonçalves capitalising on the error picked the ball up and ran 1 on 1 with the keeper who stops well to save his defenders blushes. You really should be scoring that as far as I’m concerned. Nogueira is hands down the player of the match so far. He’s Chaves’ umbrella as Sporting rain down on his goal.

42 Reis hits a low shot from 23 yards but was already slipping as he connected and the keeper was down low to save once more

43 GOAL Finally Nogueiras goal is breached. It wasn’t pretty and came from a corner. Chaves failed to clear the ball and instead it fell to Paulinho who poked home from 2 yards. Suspicion of handball in the buildup? Did it come off the arm of a defender or Hjulmand’s elbow? They’re certainly taking their time looking at it. Finally after what seemed like an eternity the goal is given. Chaves 0 Sporting CP 1

Plus two shown

+3 Fernandes takes out Paulinho in the Sporting half. You have to fancy for once he is genuinely injured because there’s no way you’d want to lie on that wet grass for any considerable period of time.

Half time

GD Chaves 0 Sporting CP 1

If I was Marcus Edwards I’d be telling Amorim I’m still too unwell to take to the pitch the second half. The conditions really are appalling out there. Nogueiras area has been peppered all half and that Sporting only go in one goal to the good is testament to the Brazilian keeper. Gonçalves will be wondering how he didn’t make it 1-0 midway through the half when 1 on 1. In the dry you’d fancy he rounds the keeper and puts it away but in the dry the ball makes it back to his keeper and it’s never an opportunity. Catch 22. At the back Sporting have rarely been troubled. Quaresma and Reis have marshalled their sides of the pitch well to nullify any threat on the wings and the offside trap has so far succeeded. As you’d imagine it’s not been a half of quality but that won’t matter anything as long as we finish three points to the good. Players and officiating staff you imagine won’t be in any sort of hurry to get back out for the restart.

Second half

It would appear captain Coates is due to come on to play the second half as he goes through a series of warm up sprints. Ruben Amorim sprints from the tunnel, along the touchline and into the dugout to deliver his instructions to Coates who is now stripping off.

Quaresma makes way for Coates. We’ll have to see how they shape up at the back position wise given Inácio and Reis traditionally fill the left of the three. Maybe Coates will slot in at the right?

48 The left footed Inácio is now filling in on the right of the three. Whatever floats your boat which seems apt given the surface water on the pitch.

49 Trincão fires a shot past the left post from 20 yards. He tried to curl it in but that was a shot that needed a better connection which is probably near on impossible in this deluge

51 GOAL Chaves 0 Sporting CP 2. There’s me saying a decent connection is near impossible in this weather and Trincão goes ‘hold my beer.’ Cross in from the left from Nuno Santos whipped into the top left hand corner by my favourite Musketeer. He’s deserved that goal for his performances in recent weeks.

55 Sporting fans have nicked the oh allez allez chant made famous by the fans of Raja Casablanca. Fucking great now I’ll be singing marihuana y coca in my head for the next five hours before bed.

56 GOAL Chaves 0 Sporting CP 3. Chaves failed to clear their lines and the ball fell to Gonçalves who made no mistake this time to slot it low into the bottom right hand corner from 20 yards. Poor old Nogueiras, there was nothing he could do about either goal in fairness.

62 Correia goes into the book for catching Hjulmand. The Dane has done him with the scream out loud there. Didn’t look anything wrong with that to me and any contact was minimal and accidental.

66 Cross from Nuno Santos finds Paulinho but his header goes over bar from 12 yards. Little he could do with that one facing the wrong way from goal.

68 Chance for Chaves knocked wide by Pedro from 20 yards. The camera pans to a teenage girl in the crowd who rolls her eyes and throws her head back like she’s been watching reruns of Kevin and Perry Go Large made in a time long before her birth.

70 Yellow for Coates for a cynical foul in the Chaves half on Jo to nullify and chance of a counter attack.

74 Coates with another foul. He’s just got to watch himself here otherwise Sporting will be down to ten. The referee has maybe been a little lenient on him there

75 Gonçalves tries from edge of six yard box but the angle is too narrow. Keeper however makes a hash of it and it goes out for a corner. I’d forgotten Gonçalves was on the pitch.

77 Gyökeres uses his strength to get his foot on the end of a cross and send it goalwards but the keeper was in the right place again rushing out to save

78 Gonçalves is replaced by Bragança. I thought he’d placed the ball comfortably into the net for his goal but they show the replay as he exits the far side of the pitch and it took a deflection off the defender.

84 Essugo and Neto come on for Reis and Esgaio

90 Gyökeres shown the yellow for a foul.

Plus 3 shown

+1 Header wide of the right post by Hernández from 8 yards. He got his connection all wrong there.

Full time

GD Chaves 0 Sporting CP 3

The Final Word

This game won’t win any awards for quality it’s fair to say. It won’t stick long in the mind, the water in the shirts of players laying procumbent on the pitch will last longer. It could have been deleterious to the club’s title challenge. We saw that in similar conditions when we lost to Vitória but today we’ve clearly been able to propitiate the footballing God’s into smiling down upon us. The surfeit rain was truly non stop and you wonder if the game wasn’t on the prime time Saturday slot whether it would have been called off under the same conditions on any other night.

Sporting stretch their lead temporarily at least to four points at the top of the table. I’d been trying to work out my man of the match for the last ten minutes of the game and I’m still not entirely sure now the final whistle has blown. Gyökeres display was industrious up front and he looked a handful as he always does. Esgaio probably had his best 90 of the season but I don’t think it was enough to top the Swede’s performance. I can’t think of Inácio putting a foot wrong at the back and Reis had another solid game at the back. Quaresma looked solid first half but he’s discounted for only playing 45. Given I don’t rate Inácio to any degree I’m going to swallow my pride today and give him my first man of the match after half the league season played. Yes you’ve read it in print, well typeface on a screen anyways – Inácio is my man of the match. Well bugger me. Who knew hey? Have I mentioned Gyökeres and Paulinho can’t play together in a front three? I have? More than once. Okay I'll shut up.