Sporting CP 4 Manchester City 1

Sporting CP v Manchester City

November 5th, 2024

Estádio José Alvalade 

Champions League Matchday 3 

The warm up 

When was the last time Manchester City lost three games on the trot in any competitive competition? Answer - April 2018 when they lost twice to Liverpool in the Champions League and in a Manchester derby sandwiched in between the two legs. Prior to the 2-1 away loss to Bournemouth on Saturday just gone they'd not lost a Premier League game since December 6th, 2023. That loss followed their Carabao Cup exit to Spurs 2-1 during the week. (Full admission I did type Carling Cup but it's not been that for years and only spotted it on the read through.)

They go into this game with the longest unbeaten run of any side in the competition. Whilst you can argue the toss about City's current unbeaten record, the record books will show that they've not lost a game in this competition in 27 matches now. Technically they were only knocked out by Real Madrid on penalties, however they didn't actually lose. I don't make the rules don't blame me. 

For them to lose twice on the spin isn't overly unusual, it's just three times is as rare as rocking horse shit. December 2018 they lost to Palace and Leicester and then beat Southampton away 3-1. Late January / early February 2020 they lost to Manchester United and Spurs before beating West Ham 2-0 at home. August 2021 a loss in the Community Shield to Leicester City before their opening day league fixture was lost away to Spurs which was then followed up with a 5-0 thumping of Norwich City. January 2023 and a 2-0 loss to Southampton away, 2-1 away to Manchester United and then a 4-2 dispatching of Spurs at home. 

The point of course being statistically it's highly unlikely that Sporting are about to inflict a third straight defeat on City but stranger things have happened in football. If I'm offered the draw before kick off I'm taking it especially having sat through the 5-0 pasting in February 2022 at the Alvalade. We did draw the return leg 0-0 but City could have played their under 17s by that point. They certainly didn't have to get out of first gear from memory. For Sporting it was then merely an exercise in damage limitation, they'd already been force fed humble pie in the first game.  

To be fair to Pep over the weekend, he did at least get his excuses in before the defeat on the South Coast claiming he only had 13 fit players. I personally think we'd beat Bournemouth if we played them Wednesday night, that doesn't mean I think we'll beat City though. Anyone tempted to tell me to dream a little will swiftly be reminded that it's always the hope that kills you. Occasionally I tell myself - we won a title with Tiago Tomás up front and anything is possible in football. Then I think to myself I probably dreamt that after a night on the cheese, that couldn't have possibly happened. Somewhere there's a five year old inside me going we're going to win this and sometime after the final whistle I'll inevitably have to give that inner child a big cuddle and teach him about the realities of the haves and the have nots. Not to be confused by the AVS and the AVS not’s as mentioned in a previous post. 

Friday night saw Sporting pass the 500 goal mark under the stewardship of the soon to be departed coach Ruben Amorim, none of which have come against Manchester City. I don't know how many we've conceded in comparison to that figure but did I mention five of that total will have been scored by City? Oh I did? That's called expectations management or reverse psychology, or maybe both, or something different entirely. Simple truth of the matter is Sporting will never have a better chance to beat City… well Pep's City anyway and whatever state they take to the pitch on Tuesday night this is still Pep's City. 

Let's not simply dismiss our own record this season having won every game other than PSV away which finished 1-1. Don't look at my hand to see how many straws I'm clutching at. Inter managed a 0-0 draw in the Champions League at the Etihad. City then put 4 past Slovan Bratislava away and 5 against Sparta Prague at home both without reply. So for now they sit level on points in the new league format table with Sporting but ahead on goal difference with City 3rd and Sporting 8th. Sporting have the added benefit of being used to playing evening kick offs week in, week out. They've the extra rest of playing Friday night with City having played Saturday at 3pm. City will have had to fly out to Lisbon and as I say, really and truthfully I'm clutching at straws. This is a side who've won the last four Premier League titles, a Champions League in the same period and are managed by the greatest coach that ever lived. Maybe we inserted a deal into Hugo Viana’s contract that any Premier League club that employs him has to let us win the next Champions League game against them if we ever meet in the competition? I am of course kidding but do find it hilarious that Sporting but a 30 day notice period into Amorim’s so that was a nice segue of nothing else to get that into the mixer. 

To date this season Erling Haaland has scored 17 for club and Country. Viktor Gyökeres has 24 by the same metrics but comparing the two is like apples and oranges for me. Halaand is more Bas Dost in a long blonde wig, highly lethal and effective but you're not surprised if he only had five touches in a game and 3 of those culminate in goals. City have conceded 12 in all competitions, Sporting half that with 6. Whilst Sporting have 9 clean sheets in all competitions, City have yet to concede a goal in the Champions League. Every time I try to make a case for a Sporting win its incredibly easy to pivot and make the counter argument. 

There's only two games to go before the coach departs so maybe I'd better get some things off my chest whilst I can. My biggest gripe against Amorim has always been his failure to get his tactics right in the big games. Letting the handbrake off is easy when you have a forward like Gyökeres in a rich vein of scoring form and you're taking on an Estrela side who can't sufficiently punish the space you left at the back. Give Halaand that same space and he'll punch your lights out. I remember Luton trying it against City in the FA Cup and it was like all his Christmases had come at once for the big Norwegian. Amorim had four bites of the cherry against last season's eventual Europa League winners Atalanta and never once looked like he'd solved the puzzle. He'll get just the one crack at City and if he gets it drastically wrong that will cast a shadow over his United stewardship before it even begins. I'd hope sensible people would say that's stupidly unfair which it is but the likes of Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher make a living out of saying stupid shit on a weekly basis. It's the cheese on a mouse trap. Beating City wouldn't be the crowning glory of Amorim's reign but it would go someway to leaving less of the bitter aftertaste some fans may have right now after his decision to soon depart for the other side of Manchester. It wasn't surprising to learn this week that he was due to go in the summer anyway and that when United made their approach he enquired whether he could move in the summer but as Elvis once famously sung it was a case of It's now or never. You'd be stupid to walk away from adding a possible third title to your record but … it's Manchester United at the end of the day and they weren't prepared to wait. Those chances don't come around very often. Well less often that they did under SAF. So I can't blame him. He's got to do what's right for him and his family. How much time he's given will be interesting and whether he will be successful remains to be quantified. Gyökeres seemed to knock any suggestions of him following Amorim to Manchester dead on Friday night. We'd be foolish to think he's not got something lined up for next summer with an agreement in place with the club to let him go for a reduced fee if he stays until the end of the season. Everyone wants to wear the Crown and when he goes Harder will step up to the plate. I personally think United fans will quickly familiarise themselves with the names of United's academy graduates. I find it hard to believe his first moves will be to try raid Sporting for Hjulmand say when the Dane was the replacement for Ugarte. I'd well believe it if you said he'd say get me Nuno Mendes from PSG but he'll surely want to unearth the next Quenda or in fact Nuno Mendes from their academy. United like Sporting have a proud tradition of bringing youngsters through into the first team and I imagine that is ultimately why he's been given the job. If you can get some sort of tune put of Ricardo Esgaio then you can get a tune of a Diogo Dalot by way of comparison. Get Maguire growing some facial hair to fill the Coates roll in the centre of a back 3. Bruno Fernandes as the new Pedro Gonçalves knocking them in for fun again…

Look this isn't a United blog so I'll change the record. 

Back to the champions league: fortune favours the brave. Equally every day a village finds its idiot has gone missing. Amorim as we've established already cannot allow the space we saw on Friday night. He also cannot commit to allowing the same number of substitutions he's done in the past three games which has thrown all the balance out of the side defensively in the last twenty minutes. 

My prediction for the match, at the end of full time Pep will either say Sporting are so so so good or that he's so so so happy. Other than that I'll sit on the fence and take the splinters out with a pair of tweezers whilst hopefully being delirious with joy. It's the hope that always kills you mind …

Monday night update 

The closer it gets to kick off the more the inner monologue in my head is going we could do this you know. March 2023, Manchester City put 7 past RB Leipzig at home with Haaland scoring four. One of the two central defenders that night, a certain Joško Gvardiol. All Sportinguista's know how good Gyökeres is. But can he prove how great he is? Because doing it against Estrela on a Friday night is one thing. If you want to take the crown, if you want to really be considered great then this is THE stage to do it on. City at some stage I'm convinced are going to make the mistake of allowing Gyökeres to go off to the races and I reckon he has Gvardiol on toast in a one on one situation. I'll be amazed if there isn't a blade of grass in the final third that Gyökeres doesn't touch on Tuesday night. This has to be the night that every player believes in themselves. Believes when they go out that they belong on the big stage. Because in club football there is no bigger stage than this one. If your ambitions lie outside of Portugal, and no one should judge you for wanting more, then now is the time to go and prove it. Now is the time for Amorim to prove how good he is too. It's going to take a gigantic effort. No one will think any less of this team if it doesn't come off. Yet if they don't try they've only themselves to blame. City on their day are the best team in world club football. You want something to tell your Grandkids about one day then why not let it be the time City came to Lisbon and the lions mauled the very best.

The markets

Sporting 16/5

Draw 14/5

City 3/4

BTS 4/7

Team news 

Starting XI 

Israel, Reis, Diomande and Debast. Araújo, Morita, Hjulmand and Quenda. Gonçalves, Gyökeres and Trincão 

Substitutes 

Kovačević, Pinto, St Juste, Quaresma, Simões, Geny, Fresneda, Bragança, Esgaio, Edwards and Harder. 

Inácio fails to recover from his knock as Sporting's injury woes continue. They must have had a revolving door installed on the treatment room this season and injuries it has to be said is what poses one of the most realistic threats to the season derailing. Reis takes his place and he's grown into an a great player in my humble opinion and presents a safer pair of hands in many ways over Gonçalo who has the touch of the Harry Maguire’s about him. The match up between Haaland and Diomande will be fascinating because I think the young Ivorian really is the real deal and the next 90 minutes is as much about him as it is Gyökeres at the other end of the pitch. Show that you can handle Haaland and I think you can write your own ticket in life. He could have gone in the summer for a cut price fee and he'll end up like Gyökeres costing you an awful lot more than you could have paid. 

Quenda looked on fine form Friday night as if getting his feet in tune for what's to come. Every time Yamal does something of note at Barca you'll know it before you've seen it because ‘he's just 17’ will be trending. Well Geovany clearly isn't at that level just yet but to coin the phrase - he's just 17! Having lost the old war horses in Adán, Neto and Coates in the summer leaving Esgaio the old man at 31 it's so easy to forget how young and experienced this side is. Maybe I'm doing a Pep and getting my excuses in early doors. 

Morita comes back in for Bragança. The Japanese international has been incredible his last couple of appearances and I can't wait for the next international break to be over for him. There are domestic pilots that won't fly anywhere near the same distance he'll have travelled during the period from the start of the season through to the next break. Utterly ridiculous and unfair on him and Sporting as his employers. 

Geny returns to the squad. Still not sure why he was absent and in the stands Friday but as with Gonçalves who looked like he'd been given the recent Taça game off, perhaps it's just the case of sensibly trying to manage their game time and fitness with so many injuries this season. Quaresma is fit enough to be named amongst the substitutes and Pinto gets the nod over Callai as the 3rd choice goalkeeper. Still no game time for Simões. Perhaps he'll be Amorim's parting gift in this his final game as Sporting coach at the Alvalade. 

Sporting's youngsters have already shown the first team what can be achieved as they beat City 2-0 this afternoon with goals from Denilson Santos and Gabriel Silva. Remember, remember the 5th of November; Gyökeres, Trincão and Pote. That of course probably means nothing to anyone outside of England and why should it. But for those trying to figure it out the trio have been parachuted in for Gunpowder, treason and plot. I was proud of it anyway. 

It would be nice to think that the English media could show Sporting some respect but most outlets can't even get the club name correct so I'll piss on my shoes, it'll be quicker than seeing it it sprays back on the wind. This is not a Manchester derby by another name. England he will be all yours in two games time. 

Ballon d’Or winner Rodri is of course sidelined through injury for the rest of the season. Second best player in the world behind the Wolves defender Ballon Dawson let's not forget. City also missing the English Jota Silva. Well this is a blog about a Portuguese football Clube so what did you expect? If City haven't played Forest yet the punchline for that Vitória's joke will become apparent at some point. 

Since Sunday I've convinced myself we will win tonight so you can guarantee we'll get our arses handed to us now I've committed it to print. I've only ever turned one Sporting game off in disgust in ten years so even if we lose 5-0 again I'm here for you all until the end and unlike some others I'll still be here at the end of the season…

First half 

Bad news Darren Fletcher on commentary duty. 

Sporting in black, green and white. City get us underway, Sporting attack right to left. 

2 Nunes curls a ball from the left towards Haaland at the far post but Diomande heads clear for a corner.

3 GOAL Sporting CP 0 Manchester City 1. Morita gets caught outside the box, Foden charged forward, Debast gave him too much time and space to shoot and Israel gets his body shape all wrong as the Englishman fires home from 16 yards. 

7 Gyökeres charges free from the halfway line. 1 on 1 with Ederson, goes for the lob and fluffs his lines from just inside the D. You'd have put your house on him to score there. The Swede got it all wrong there.  

8 Haaland curls an effort towards the top left hand corner from 14 yards palmed to safety by Israel 

14 Haaland left free between Diomande and Reis but inexplicably fires well wide from 14 yards 

15 Gyökeres claims for a penalty but a case of ball to hand from Simpson-Pusey and VAR says no. 

21 Savinho shot deflects off Araújo for City's fifth corner.

27 Gyökeres clears off the line from a Haaland header back across goal. 

29 Araújo shepherds the ball out to safety from a Savinho attack. He's performed well so far this game 

30 Haaland has Israel stretching to save from 11 yards, this time at full stretch low to his right. It's only a matter of time if we keep giving him that amount of space in the area before he scores. 

35 Silva pulls a low shot wide of the right post from 14 yards 

37 GOAL Sporting CP 1 Manchester City 1. The Alvalade erupts as Gyökeres this time ironically dinks the ball past Ederson to equalise. Again City allowed space for Sporting to run into and Gyökeres had his marker on toast. We'll forgive him that 7th minute miss 

39 Sporting with their tails up now as Trincão fires wide from 9 yards into the crowd 

40 Nunes stings the hands of Israel from 18 yards and out for another corner 

44 Kovacic shown the yellow as he lunges at Morita and catches him with the follow through 

Plus one indicated 

Half time 

Sporting CP 1 Manchester City 1

That was a footballing lesson for both clubs. For Sporting a lesson in just how far away they are from Europe's elite. For City a lesson in how dangerous it is to leave Gyökeres with space and how strong he is. He scored the harder one of his two chances and he will replay the miss in the 7th minute in his mind over and over but unlike so many other players it will add as fuel to his fire. I can't remember the last time I saw Sporting so poor from a passing point of view. Even the most simple of passes have just gone to City players time and time again which we just don't see. The early goal for City won't have helped confidence. Anyone claiming they weren't nervous prior to kick off in a Sporting shirt will be lying. The miss in the 7th minute won't have helped but they've weathered the storm. What they can't afford to do is allow Haaland and Savinho the same level of space in the second 45. Araújo has had his best game in a Sporting shirt but he needs to remain switched on out on the left hand side and run himself into the ground. The game has looked beyond Quenda but as I said in my pre game build up he's just 17. His time will come. Geny will be the better option. You'd fancy that Edwards will be desperate to put himself into the shop window back home as well. Thankfully only one mention of the red half of Manchester. I normally like to count how many times Bragança has done his hair. Tonights count comes in the form of what utter fuckwits TNT are having called us by the wrong club name 20 times already. It's not fucking hard is it. 

Second half

Sporting get us underway. 

Close up of Haaland. He really is an ugly bastard isn't he

45 GOAL Sporting CP 2 Manchester City 1. Straight from kick off. Gonçalves with an incredible weighted pass into Araújo who smashes it between the legs of Ederson from 8 yards. 

46 PENALTY. Trincão upended by Gvardiol. What an incredible start to the second half. 

48 GOAL Sporting CP THREE Manchester City 1. Gyökeres sends Ederson the wrong way. If you attached a heart monitor to me right now I might break it. I know how hard I celebrated the first goal because my torch light came on my phone. Off. On. I've sent morse code to Manchester and it's saying your boys are taking a beating and we've only played three minutes if the second half. 

50 Trincão the filling in a sandwich goes down in midfield. Akanji looks like he's struggling

54 City have all the big boys warming up on the touchline now. 

54 Yellow shown to Gonçalves. Free kick awarded against him for a foul in the D which was never a foul and you imagine the yellow was for something he said. That's a poor, poor decision from the German referee. 

56 Free kick to City in a dangerous position. City have moved the ball back 3 yards from where the foul occurred just to rub it in. Straight into the wall from Silva. Karma. 

58 Savinho pings one over the bar from 19 yards 

61 This could be the longest half hour of my life. Sporting just knocking it about now and keeping possession finally. Gyökeres took it all the way to the far right corner in the City half and it goes all the way back to Israel and then back up the left wing. We need a fourth goal. 

62 BEEP BEEP BEEP TNT commentators reversing. I fucking can't stand Darren Fletcher. 

64 Silva appeals for a handball against Diomande. They didn't give the one against Simpson-Pusey early on. Ball to arm. There's nothing he could have done there. 

65 Referee is running to the monitor. He's awarded it. Incredible. Tell me what is the difference between that and the one in the first half then? Well apart from the position of the arm but still it's ball to arm not arm to ball. 

68 PENALTY. Haaland with the responsibility. Smashes the ball against the bar. That's justice served. Diomande punches the air in celebration towards the crowd behind the goal. 

70 Savinho fires straight at Israel from eight yards

71 HOOF Debast. 1990s football at it's best as Sporting just catch their breath and clear their lines. 

72 Yellow to Araújo for a tug on Savinho’s shirt. He then chases Maxi down, shoves him in the back and gets booked in return. Playground stuff. One of em will go 'miss, miss he pushed me!' any minute now. 

73 Foden takes the free kick from wide right, misses everyone and out for a goal kick. 

74 ➡️⬅️ The crowd are on their feet as Mortia makes his way off the pitch. Araújo and Reis also now making their way slowly to the touchline. St Juste, Geny and Bragança on. 

75 Savinho clears St Juste out. They'll give a penalty but they clearly won't give a second yellow to City. 

77 Gyökeres makes the wrong choice. Tries to go for the match ball from 9 yards…Ederson saved... PENALTY. He will get the chance now. I was trying to write he could have looked up, should have looked up and squared it to Trincão but in the follow up phase penalty awarded. 

79 Nunes it was who pulls Geny down and gets the yellow. VAR agrees with the on field decision. He's not had a great return to his former home. 

80 GOAL Sporting CP FOUR Manchester City 1. Ederson goes the right way but the ball was inch perfect to go past the keepers hand and into the bottom left hand corner.

82 Sporting are pulling City apart now. Trincão broke free in the centre, sent Geny on his way but he's stopped by a last ditch tackle 

84 Just imagine if Gyökeres had taken that 7th minute chance. 23 goals now. It's November 5th. I said last season I'd be over the moon if the Swede got close to those figures across the entire season. Someone call for a cleaner on bedroom 3 my mind is blown.  

84 ➡️⬅️ Quaresma on for Quenda. 

86 Pep looking glum on the touchline. Sporting have been so so so good this second half. So so so so good. 

87 The fans are serenading Amorim by the sounds of things. Hjulmand has been booked. 

88 Trincão replaced by Harder. 

90 As send offs go for a coach you can't get better than this one

Plus five indicated 

+2 Strong challenge from Quaresma sends Doku flying and gets the stand behind to its feet

+3 De Bruyne with a shot like a wet lettuce straight at Israel from 18 yards. Trincão gives him a sarcastic clap from the bench. 

Full time

Sporting Clube de Portugal FOUR Manchester City 1

The final word

Let's just all take a quiet moment of reflection and let that final scoreline sink in. Sporting Clube de Portugal 4… Manchester City 1. Nah fuck it. Let's go fucking mental, let's go fucking mental la la la la, la la la la. Did that really just happen? Like really, really happen? That's a cheese dream surely? I know I said before kick off I was uber confident we were going to win that game but City genuinely had their arses handed to them in the second half. What a start to the that half. Finally Sporting strung more than ten passes together and Araújo gets his second goal in a week. I highlighted him at half time, thought he was having his best game in a Sporting shirt and to be fair if it wasn't for a certain Swedish striker he'd have gotten my man of the match. 

Look, let's not kid ourselves here. We were outplayed and outclassed for large parts of the first half. Yet you only had to watch the highlights of Friday nights game and look at the goalscoring statistics for this season to work out Gyökeres is…well a little bit tasty and a fucking handful. I swear Pepe at Porto went bollocks, I'm not going through that again at the end of last season after he ran him ragged in the Clássico. That's 23 goals. Twenty three! It's November 5th. That's insane. Two years ago he's at Coventry and no one wants to take a punt on €20m and now he's scoring a hat-trick against the best side in world football in the Champions League and should have had four. I said he'd use the miss as fuel to his fire and wouldn't let it bother him. Strength of body, strength of character. This kid has it all. Has it all! What a privilege to watch him play. So great that kids in a centuries time won't have to rely on stories about how great he was for Sporting like we do with our heroes of the past. 

I said above there's no point in comparing Gyökeres and Haaland because they are two very different strikers. I wrote at the start of the season that it wouldn't surprise me if City just went here's the €100m you want for him. You might imagine Real Madrid are now changing their thoughts from one Scandinavian to a different one after that performance. We knew he was great in Portuguese football but now we now how great he is full fucking stop. Job done. Any doubts or arguments you can have avoid the 7th minute miss and come at me. I'm ready. 

What a send off for Amorim though you couldn't have written that script. Well you could have written it of course but no one would have gone to watch it as a movie, as a concept it wouldn't stack up. If you go through virtually everyone of my half time posts since the start of last season you'll find me writing that Sporting will now have space to play into and that's what they're best at. Which is ironic because I didn't allude to it today. There's half of me surprised we did it but the other half is going yeah but you've said we were going to win and have spent the last 48 hours talking yourself into it. Check your Sky Bet account; Sporting to win and Gyökeres to score anytime. Winner, winner chicken dinner. 

Sporting did enough at the right points in the game and I'd be lying if I said it couldn't have finished 4-4. Friday night at half time I said pick a scoreline and whatever you pick don't back it because it could finish as anything. Unlike Sporting sides of the past this one is capable of figuring it out. We're not talking about a set of players that have cost half a billion euros, pounds or potatoes to assemble. City have just been battered in the second half by a group of kids and players from the likes of Coventry City, Lecce, Midtylland, Anderlecht, Toluca, Santa Clara and Famalicão. Only Trincão can claim to have come from a household name in Barcelona. What Amorim has achieved with these players when you put it into that context is nothing short of phenomenal. It is mind blowing. He has created a cohesive unit that have the taste for blood. They're ruthless little bastards. They've written themselves into Sporting folklore tonight without a shadow of a doubt. 

The only thing that ruined tonight was the utter contempt shown by TNT. Thankfully it didn't turn into a discussion about United. But I did count 41 times they called us by the wrong club name. Just don't use the second word. It genuinely isn't hard you utter fuckwits. Every Sportinguista will tell you we're fine with just Sporting. Still enough of that. In case you'd forgotten it was Sporting Clube de Portugal 4 Manchester City 1. Christ I won't be sleeping well tonight. I am buzzing and it's an hour past full time already. 

Man of the match? Well if you walk off with the match ball against City who else is it going to be. 'No one cared about me before I wore the mask.' Well they're caring now Viktor my son. Take a bow. I started by asking when was the last time City lost 3 games on the trot? Well you don't have to go back to 2018 now dear readers. 

É dia de Jogo, toda a gente sabe que eu vou...