Sporting CP 1 Atalanta 1 (Round of 16)

Sporting CP v Atalanta
March 6th, 2024
Estádio José Alvalade
Europa League (Round of 16)

The Warm Up

Whilst before the Benfica game on Thursday night I was bemoaning Sporting having to play 3 times in seven days it transpires that Atalanta will equally be playing their 3rd in seven days to so I’d better quieten down on that front at least. For Atalanta their last three games were made up from opposition who made up three of the top four in Serie A; Back to back trips to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza to face AC Milano and Internazionale and then facing off against Bologna on the Sunday. For those who watched the group games against the Italians you’ll know Sporting faced the most difficulties in the first half of each game. Inter to be fair are a class above Sporting but it is worth noting that they lined up in a 3-5-2 formation in comparison to Amorim’s continual use of a 3-4-3. Despite the level and quality of opposition Atalanta continued to defend with a highline which enabled Inter to exploit the space behind the defence and the league leaders opening goals both came in and around the edge of the 18 yard box. This was a side missing Thurham and Çalhanoğlu who’ve been two of the league leaders mainstays this season. Atalanta by comparison had a full squad to choose from with no injuries or suspensions going into the game. If you wanted a blueprint on how to control and beat Atalanta then this is it. Sporting in their group games struggled to defend their widest corners which was key to the Italians success. Inter’s wing backs filled that same space to defend as a five and yet proved equally adept on the counter attack with DiMarco causing particular problems on the left flank and in the second half Dumfries found acres of space to run into on the right. After less than an hour Inter were three goals to the good and Atalanta made four substitutions as they ran up the white flag of surrender.

Sunday’s game didn’t fare much better although I can’t claim to have watched that one as I did the full 90 of the game against Inter. They were 1-0 up at half time through a Lookman goal as he looks to return to fitness following a long lay off but conceded twice in the second half to lose 2-1 meaning they’ve managed a solitary point in the aforementioned three games. Hardly the best preparation for this Europa League tie with the first of two legs coming away in Lisboa but you’d still expect them to be buoyed by knowledge they came away with a 2-1 win in the corresponding group stage fixture.

Sporting by comparison come into the tie with the 2-1 Dérbi win at home in the Taça de Portugal and a 3-2 win, again at home, to Farense which saw them climb back to the top of the league table with a one point advantage and the game in hand still to be rescheduled against Famalicão. That lead was confirmed in the evening Clássico which followed on after the Sporting game as Benfica capitulated away to Porto losing 5-0 and finishing the game with 10 men after the club captain Otamendi was given his marching orders for a second yellow. That’s now a staggering 31 wins in all competitions for Sporting with 106 goals scored but these numbers will count for nothing come the end of the season if they fail to pick up any silverware. The potential loss of Adán for the remainder of the season following an injury to his thigh in training on Friday leaves an awful lot riding on the shoulders of the inexperienced Franco Israel in goal. He started Thursday as the preferred goalkeeper in cup competitions which I personally felt was a particularly brave choice given it was the first leg of not only a semi final but also a Lisboa Dérbi and his fault in the goal which saw us lose in the Taça da Liga semi final to Braga. Come Sunday however Amorim was left with no real choice but to start him with Diogo Pinto even younger and less experienced than the Uruguayan and it could have proved costly as Farense scored twice and Sporting ultimately scraping over the line to claim a valuable three points. With another Dérbi and Clássico to come in the league run in he’ll need to perform a great deal better otherwise it’ll be the season of what could have been rather than what was.

Amorim certainly seemed to have one eye on this game with his starting XI on Sunday and the timing of his substitutions. Gonçalves, Reis and Hjulmand were all withdrawn on 55 minutes. Morita and Quaresma only played the last 35 minutes and Coates the last 21. St Juste seemed to come through his 69 minutes unscathed thankfully and there were minutes for both Trincão and Paulinho coming back from injuries. Inácio played no part, still out injured. It might be worth remembering that Adán was set to miss a large part of the start of last season but those reports it transpires were grossly exaggerated though it did look like they’d rushed him back too soon in the opening weeks. He did seem to be moving free enough when the half time whistle went and no sign of crutches unless they were being hid in the executive box from where he was watching on.

The money markets

Sporting 23/20 = 46.51% probability chance of win
Draw 13/5 = 27.77% probability chance of draw
Atalanta 23/10 = 30.30% probability chance of win
Both to score = 61.54% chance 

Team News

Oh mio Dio, more injury woes with Pedro Gonçalves the latest player forced to sit on a game suffering from myalgia – yeah no me neither, not a Scooby. So Israel continues to deputise for the injured Adán. Quaresma returns for St Juste, Diomande moves from the centre to the left, Reis pushes forward to replace Santos and Coates comes in at the centre of the 3 at the back. Morita replaces Bragança, Geny for Esgaio and a full debut for Koindredi in place of Hjulmand. Gonçalves swaps out with Trincão and the big news – No Gyökeres. Paulinho starts. 16 year old Geovany Quenda is named amongst the substitutes.

First Half

Wednesday night in Europe which can only mean one thing – Champions Lea… oh no silly me. Europa League football a night early because no one has the common sense to reverse one of this and the neighbours v Rangers fixtures around. I’m sure someone will argue about home advantages and whether that game comes first or second but let’s be honest it’s not like away goals count double anymore and you have to still play home and away. So here we are playing a night earlier instead which migh’ work out bett’r with an additional days rest before Arouca on Sunday. Every cloud and all that.

Atalanta kick off, Sporting will attack right to left in front of what can only politely be described as a sparse crowd.

13 Unlucky number for some and unlucky for Hien as he’s shown a yellow for a foul on the halfway line on Paulinho

16 GOAL Sporting CP 1 Atalanta 0. Paulinho played through, out wide to the left by Trincão, ran through into the box and slotted home bottom right from 10 yards. Didn’t know he had that in his locker. We’ve seen Gyökeres make the same run dozens of times this season. Clearly someone has been taking notes.

23 No Holm for the ball in the Sporting net as Sporting lose one of their nine lives. The Swedish midfielder hits the far post from five yards and somehow it cannons back out to safety. Re read it. That’s a great line.

23 Scamacca hits the same post from 25 yards. Cazzo di merda! That’s two lives lost in under sixty seconds. I don’t know if it’s Israel’s height but with anything struck with real venom he always seems to be that split second behind. He’s like a modern day diplodocus.

29 Sporting look rattled. De Roon fires a shot at Israel centrally from 20 yards which he gets a hand to and tips it over his bar. I’d been really impressed with the way Sporting had filled in the spaces in the corners in the opening 20 minutes and nullified any threat from the Italians. Following on from the first time they hit the post it literally has all gone to shit.

34 Sporting defending very deep which you don’t see very often. Back four marshalled by two central midfielders just five or ten yards in front closing off that attacking space centrally.

35 Petulance from Edwards having failed to be awarded a free kick turns and swipes at Ederson and shown a yellow.

38 GOAL Vaffanculo! Sporting CP 1 Atalanta 1. Poor back-pass saw Israel having to rush off his line and his clearance went to Miranchuk. Israel is 24 yards out at this juncture having slid out of the area to make the clearance. Ball passed to Scamacca on the edge of the D. Checked the ball back onto his left foot and with Israel still ten yards out fired it home. I was halfway through typing – the good news in the first two games at this point we were 1-0 down and at least we’re 1-0 up. That pissed on my chips

41 Scamacca header from six yards to the bottom left hand corner is somehow turned around for a corner. I’ll let Israel have that one, that looked a save of real quality. He can at least deal with the slower shots then!

Plus two indicated

Half time

Sporting CP 1 Atalanta 1

First game at half time we went in 2-0 down, second 1-0 down so 1-1 is an improvement comparatively at least. Tedious opening 15 minutes in which an Edwards run which came to nothing was really the only moment of any note. In my warmup I’d stated that Atalanta are vulnerable to the counter attack and so it showed as Paulinho finished the type of goal I genuinely didn’t think he had in his locker. It was all looking so good. The last 25 minutes are basically what I predicted would happen against Young Boys in the previous game. Sporting did their famous - we’re in Europe, let’s shoot ourselves in the foot routine. I’m not sure who hit the poor weighted back pass – came from out wide right so Quaresma possibly but it left the inexperienced Israel with a rush of blood to the head, too eager to get any sort of touch on the ball rather than stand his ground and hope his defenders get back to assist him. You expect Miranchuk to strike it from distance with Israel trying to get back but all credit to him and Scamacca in turn because the composure from both players was the complete opposite of the panic from Sporting’s defensive ranks. I personally cannot see where Sporting’s threat comes from in the second half without changes. They need to hit on the counter attack. We’ve seen Edwards and Gyökeres take advantage of it time after time this season but we’re not winning the battle in midfield. I can’t see anything other than an away win at present.

Second half

No surprise to see Gyökeres come on at half time as Edwards makes way for the Swedish Panzer. St Juste comes in for Diomande who took a bang on the head towards the end of the first half. Koindredi swapped out Hjulmand. Sporting kick off to get the game back underway.

48 Scalvani shown the yellow for a foul on Trincão inside the Sporting half

51 Geny with a driving run from the right eventually sees a shot saved from 8 yards. Better from the youngster who had a quiet first half and probably suffered from Edwards occupying the same space he would look to exploit

55 Gyökeres turns Djimsiti (pronounced Gym Shitty – yes I need to grow up) and he challenges with a pull on the shoulders you’re more likely to have seen on an p football field. No surprises as he’s shown the yellow.

55 Trincão’s either really miss hit his free kick or he’s gone for an audacious effort into the top left hand corner. Whatever the truth the ball goes over the bar to safety

58 What have the posts done to upset Atalanta players tonight as Lookman whacks the ball against the left post at the opposite end from 8 yards. Cazzo di merda. Atalanta should have put this tie out of reach by now. You never know though Sporting did the same to Braga in the Taça semi final and came away with a 1-0 defeat.

62 Coates heads the ball onto the far right post from 8 yards. That was desperately close.

68 Paulinho comes off for Esgaio. Does that mean Ricardo is about to join the forward three? Never know with Amorim. What would Pep do? Play him as a sweeper keeper probably.

73 Kolasinac heads wide from 6 yards. That should have been another goal for the Italians. I’ve genuinely no idea how we are still in this tie. I now know exactly how Braga fans felt at half time in the Taça. Maybe it will be our night though I’m not sure how given our lack of any attacking threat so far this half apart from Coates header onto the post

83 Bragança comes on for Morita. That’s all five substitutions made for Sporting now. Arouca on Sunday for Sporting, Juventus for Atalanta before the two sides meet again next Thursday to do it all again. If this game finishes 1-1 and carries that weight of hope into it you can bet your bollocks to a barn dance it’ll be 1-0 next week like it was in that famous night in Turin that broke the hearts of Sportinguista’s

85 Toure with an overhead kick from 18 yards sees the ball into the net but the flag was raised on the far side for offside. VAR confirmed the assistants initial decision

Plus four shown

+3 Atalanta corner as Coates heads a cross from the left clear. Sporting get it temporarily away.

+4 St Juste sees the ball out for another corner… and another…

Full time

Sporting CP 1 Atalanta 1

The Final Word

Well that was a complete crock of shit. That game felt like I was watching an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol through the medium of a football match. It was the Sporting past, present and future and the moral of the story is we should be thankful for having had entertaining football played for most of the season before tonight or something like that. I had to go lay down in the dark and meditate for half an hour post game.

I still can’t figure out my man of the match. Paulinho scored but I don’t remember him doing anything else of note. Edwards is like a classic Alfa Romeo. Looks great at times when he’s going but then you remember it’s an Alfa and watch him splutter, conk out and stop. Koindredi looks like a player who’ll only be at the club next season if Amorim has left for new pastures. Quaresma had his worst game of the season. Coates looked reasonable enough. Reasonable – Cazzo! That speaks volumes when I’m praising a player for a reasonable performance. Israel was his usual seven shades of shit apart from one great save which to be fair came from a header in slow motion. I now feel like I’m playing the children’s game Guess Who, flipping down mental images in front of me. Is it a woman? No. Flap, flap, flap. Do they have a hat on? No. Flap, flap, flap. Geny had a bit more impact second half but was a passenger in the first. Who does that leave? Reis? Solid but unspectacular. Diomande – meh. Morita equally as meh. Fuck it – by default and a process of elimination – does he have a beard? Yes. Is it Trincão? Yes. Well there’s your answer as to why no one takes these blog posts seriously.

Somehow Sporting are still in with a chance of progressing. One assumes Atalanta played a weakened side with Juventus in mind on Sunday but the worry is next Thursday they don’t play a weakened side and they take their chances. I know I sound like a broken record but it was Sporting – Braga on repeat. Atalanta will have the set of fans coming away going how the fuck did we not win that? And going back to the Dickens analogy – this could well be what we’re watching week in week out next season if we sell the likes of Gyökeres in the summer and frankly on tonight’s showing that’s a fucking frighteningly depressing image. The positive is that somehow Atalanta keep contriving to not bury Sporting in these games. They were streets ahead of us in the first half in the first two games, were the better side for large parts of tonight’s game and yet it’s been 2-1, 1-1, 1-1. Maybe we can go to Italy and win. Maybe it finishes with a 1-2 scoreline to complete the palindrome. Stranger things have happened. Will it happen? No don’t be daft that’s my job.