Club Brugge KV 2 Sporting CP 1

The warm up

Sporting travel to Belgium to reenact the 2008 cult classic film In Bruges. João Pereira fulfilling the Ralph Fiennes role of Harry, Viktor Gyökeres as Colin Farrell's Ray and erm…Paulinho as Brendan Gleeson's Ken. Either that or they're going to play Club Brugge in the Champions League with accusations off the field being levelled aplenty at Sporting's President Federico Varandas that he's playing the part of Nero fiddling as Rome burns. Confused? Well it's been one of those fortnight's hasn't it and this is Sex and Drugs and Araújo and nothing here ever makes much sense. 

All is not well in the Sporting camp at the time of writing. The reign of João Pereira has not had the most auspicious of beginnings despite winning his opener 6-0 against Amarante. A 5-1 thumping by Arsenal was followed by the sides first two defeats of the league campaign against Santa Clara and Moreirense. 

Some of the natives are restless and already calling for the coaches head. I will hold my hands up as to having written that I thought he would be fortunate to still be in the role come May if the Santa Clara game was anything to go by, but calling for his head after four games in charge does seem somewhat overzealous in anyone's books. 

Let's put the cards on the table here and all be honest. Cracks had appeared before Pereira took over. Yes we beat Manchester City but we could equally have ended up the wrong side of another thumping that night. We went 2-0 down away to Braga before they capitulated against a wave of emotion and goodbyes. Fortune smiled upon us those evenings, it's just in the last two games fortune smiled the other way. 

The Santa Clara game wreaked of naivety on the part of the mister. I personally thought we did much better against Moreirense, we just had some whoopsies. Yes I know that is very polite for me. I doubt it'll stay that way. Nobody likes losing and we've not been helped by the loss of our coach to Manchester United. However at that junction how much of what's followed reaction wise is down to an inability to adjust our expectation management. Did we stop to temper those expectations? Did we factor in that Pereira might need additional time to adjust to life as a coach of a Liga and Champions League side given he's no experience in either? Or did we simply go well, he's taken over a side that's won the opening 11 games, sit second in the champions league and are undefeated to date. Even my Nan could manage this Sporting team to the league title. Judging by the fall out, clearly not the first and something skin to the latter. So maybe let's take a deep breath and frame our season another way; had we lost the opening two league games, won the next 11 and were sat atop of the table we'd all think things were going swimmingly. The fact those results are reversed seems to have the same effect as 40° heat in the summer. Heads have gone. Common sense has long departed. 

If they sack Pereira now, who do fans calling for his head think they're going to have come in as a white knight in December? Sérgio Conceição is probably the best coach available here and now. Do you think Sportinguista's would accept that? I fucking doubting it. Yes Pereira is having to learn on the job and it's not ideal but unlike anyone else he is at least familiar with the system. He is also however his own man and perhaps he's the one person who had realised that actually things were not as perfect as an eleven game winning run made them appear to be. As I've already stated there were clearly cracks appearing. I wrote weeks ago now we were yet to see how this side would react to being punched in the mouth. At the moment the answer is not great. What did no one else think at some point we wouldn't be punched in the mouth? I don't think fans are that naive in the main but it is very easy to get carried away when you keep winning and have forgotten what losing feels like. 

What we need sometimes is perspective and football is wonderful for that because you can compare season upon season. So at the time of writing Sporting are still top despite their two defeats and their current record is as follows;

P13 W11 D0 L2 GF 40 GA 8

Let's compare that to the same point last season; 

P13 W10 D1 L2 GF 27 GA 14

So we've one more win this season, scored 13 more goals, conceded 6 less. We had five clean sheets this time last year and had two more this time out. By every one of those metrics we're ahead of where we were in a season we won the title. Oh and for now we're still top of the table. Do certain fans think we're going to lose every week between now and May because Pereira is in charge? Have a word with yourselves. 

Let's talk about money and budgets in Portugal. The neighbours have the biggest playing budget in the Liga by a country mile. Eight out of the top ten best paid players ply their trade in the red half of Lisboa. According to data from footystats, Sporting don't have a single player in the top 50 best paid players in the league. I mean Jovane is number 34 on the list! So it may have been a relative step down to move to Estrela in the summer but it's not done his pocket any harm. 

https://footystats.org/portugal/liga-nos/salaries

We've won a league title without a single player being one of the top 50 best players in the Portuguese league. How many other leagues in world football do you think that happened in last season? I'm guessing the answer was none. If anyone knows any different please let me know. 

We've built a structure which has seen two League titles in four years. A coach coveted by one of the biggest clubs in world football, a director of football who will leave to join the current Premier League Champions in the summer. We've brought in a goalscorer who could well be sold next summer for €70 - 80m allowing us more money to reinvest. Up until the last Champions League matchday we were sat second in the new table format. We knew Amorim was going next summer and we've had a succession plan in place. Had the timeline gone the way it should have done Pereira would have had a pre-season to work with a group of players. He'd have had time to complete his UEFA pro licence and fans post Gyökeres departure would have given him way more leeway than they are now. Some people have short memories. We were burning through coaches like teenagers burn through relationships before Amorim came. I still don't understand the rules in Portugal that prevent players from taking their coaching badges and that they have to wait until retirement and then they're penalised when taking on a role they're not technically qualified for but that's another story. 

Thursday night we lost a game in the wet. Sporting always seem to lose in the wet. It's like an unwritten rule of Portuguese football. Moreirense finished with an XG of 0.30. The bloke dives for the free kick that led to the first goal, poor old Geny has played in so many kits this season he'd forgotten which colour they were in that night and we just couldn't grab the equaliser. It does happen to every club. Santa Clara came with a game plan and they executed it to perfection and the problem is Santa Clara aren't the story when they clearly should have been. Every outlet writing about that game should have been going brilliant, they came and did their job to a man. Fully deserved victory against a coach in his first ever league game. He'll learn. Moreirense is a game played in the same condition ten times over which gives ten different scorelines. On another night Hjulmand's header drops in, the referee doesn't get conned by play acting, Geny remembers we're playing in black…

Usually the club with the biggest wage bill wins the league and that could well be the dirty pigeons this season. It'll hurt, but league by league roughly speaking the team with the biggest budget wins more often than not. Teams that punch above their weight get stripped by vultures swarming around the carcass. We saw Sporting brave enough in the last two windows to put the shutters up and hold onto their best players knowing they won't be able to do it again next summer. Atalanta have made the same choice this summer and are currently top of Serie A but they'll know however this season finishes that they won't get that luxury again. 

Players want a pay day at some point in their careers and who can blame them? Wouldn't you want to be paid better for doing the same job at a different company if you could? People moan about loyalty with players in one breath and then moan about the lack of a pound note with the next in their own lives. We'll I'm sorry you can't have it both ways. If you don't employ footballers who want to better themselves then you'll win the sum total of fuck n all. 

There are fans of tens of dozens of clubs around Europe right now that would give their right arms to be in our position right now. 

What happens if it all clicks and we batter Club Brugge in the Champions League? Because it could be really easy for an awful lot of people to look silly if we do.

Imagine a fan of Morecambe looking from the outside in at us whilst sat second bottom in League Two, unable to find a new owner, heavily in debt and in danger of slipping out of the football league and maybe worse even out of existence altogether. They're going hang on, so you're moaning at Varandas who's brought you two League titles in four years, employed a director of football who's been snapped up by Manchester City, a coach who's seen his release clause paid by Manchester United, overseen a scouting department that's found Viktor Gyökeres who has scored 68 times in 72 games for the club to date. You've beaten Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League, won every home game last season, won your opening 11 games this season and up until the Arsenal game we're undefeated in all competitions. You're making a profit every season, have one of the very best academy systems in world football, aren't having to pay your players extortionate salaries and have a succession plan in place. Yeah fuck me you poor bastards having lost three games on the spin. Yep get the guy in charge out. Sack the new coach after four games. I get why you're all moaning. 

Now if someone said Christ they're all sycophants towards Cristiano Ronaldo didn't he play something like 30 times for the club and score 4 times you'd go yeah that's fucking ridiculous. We were hoping maybe you'd not noticed that. But his mum comes to watch us so…

Tell us about Club Brugge instead you all cry - OK then I shall. Based in Bruges they're the current Belgian Champions having secured victory on the last day of the campaign to finish one point ahead of Union St.Gilloise who some of you will remember I'm sure we drew 2-2 with in pre-season. The only time the two clubs have met previously was also in pre-season and similarly finished 2-2 so maybe we should all have our money on a Desmond. The opening goal for Sporting in that game a 45th minute penalty by Bruno Fernandes. Whatever happened to him?

Brugge are currently undefeated in ten games in all competitions, their last loss a 3-1 loss in the Champions League away to AC Milano. That loss had followed the 3-0 loss at home to BVB. Fortunes have picked up for them though with a 1-0 win at home to Aston Villa and a 1-1 draw against Scottish Champions Glasgow Celtic benefitting from Carter-Vickers own goal. Everything being relative someone tell Geny that it could have been worse on Thursday night. 

Brugge certainly don't struggle for goals; 7-0 v St.Truiden and 6-1 v Belisia Bilzen SV their two highest scoring matches to date. In the league they sit second having played 17, won 10, drawn 4 and lost 3. Top goal scorer is the Dane Andreas Skov Olsen who turns 25 at the end of this month. He has six in the league but is yet to score in this season's Champions League. However he did find the net 7 times in 12 Europa League Conference matches last season. 

I personally had this game down as one we realistically could have taken three points from when the draw was made. Right now I'd be thrilled with a win but I'd take the draw if offered to me. That goalkeeper Simon Mignolet is the best known player in the squad speaks volumes. It's clearly not a team of superstars but given they won the league last time out it's a team of round pegs for round holes like Sporting. 

Off the field it looks increasingly like Geovany Quenda could be out the door in the summer now he's signed with Portuguese super agent Jorge Mendes who loves a pound note and is more interested in lining his own pockets than what's best for the long term future of his clients. Speculation is rife that he'll be off to United. I'll start the ball rolling now that long term he'll end up like Renato Sanchez. He's not exactly pulling up trees at Sporting so let the lad develop in an environment where he can be nurtured and learn his trade. As a certain coach is already finding out the weight of expectation between Portugal and at a club like Manchester United is night and day and a move like that whilst it might have worked out for a Cristiano Ronaldo could also easily end up as another Antony. 

In the markets 

Club Brugge 11/5

Draw 5/2

Sporting 6/5

Desmond 10/1

Team news

Starting XI

Israel, *Reis, Diomande Quaresma, Geny, Hjulmand, Simões, Quenda, Araújo,. Gyökeres and Trincão

Substitutes

Kovačević, Callai, Arreíol, St Juste, Debast, Fresneda, Esgaio, Brito, Edwards, Harder and Couto

The last one of these I wrote I questioned the logic of starting both Bragança and Morita against Moreirense when we're short on bodies in midfield and now I'm having to write that both miss the game through injury. I take zero pleasure in pointing out that it was a huge risk that paid zero dividends. I am however genuinely chuffed at the return of Quaresma in the right of the three. I did wonder if he'd play some part tonight after his face was featured widely in the Portuguese media this past week. I think his return will give the players a lift. Israel starts no doubt keen to make amends for the five he let in his last performance. With Bragança and Morita injured it means a full debut for Simões. I'm assuming that Araújo will be left of the forward three. Arreíol, Couto and Brito all Sporting academy products take their place on the bench.

First half

After recent events in Fiorentina with 22 year old Edoardo Bove’s collapse against Internazionale and Michail Antonio's car crash on Saturday maybe it's time we all leave the self entitlement at the door. Just because we're Champions doesn't give us the right to behave in the manner I'd expect of the neighbours in the red half of Lisboa.

Sporting in white with green trim attack left to right. At least Geny should be able to throw the ball to a teammate tonight. Brugge get us underway.

2 GOAL Sporting held the ball for well over a minute and a half patiently going from one flank to another. Eventually it's a ball to Hjulmand in the centre who played it one touch to Gyökeres who turns, fed Araújo on the left. His shot comes off the far post to Geny who smashes home unmarked from 4 yards. Club Brugge 0 Sporting CP 1. Thrilled for the lad after the error in the last game.

4 Quenda looks like he's operating on the left of the front three. Geny is wide right.

6 Sporting look like they're trying to break the record for total passes in a champions league game.

9 * Reis apparently started instead of Inácio injured in the warmup so Sporting continuing their injury policy this season of one back one out.

11 Close up of João Pereira on the bench with Tiago Tiexiera’s name appearing underneath. Close but no biscuit.

14 The commentator announcing that in six previous visits to Belgium Sporting are yet to win with three draws and three defeats. So far it's been a very one sided opening for the visitors, Sporting have been dominant

16 Gyökeres holds the ball up on the left, quick pass into Quenda who maybe had more time than he realised. His shot from 16 yards well wide of the right post

17 Jashari with Brugge’s first effort. He won't want to see that connection again as the ball flies wide of the left post from 24 yards

21 De Cuyper with a wild swing from 7 yards sends the ball into the stands behind Israel's goal.

23 GOAL Club Brugge 1 Sporting CP 1. Poor shot from ten yards hits Quaresma and deflects past Israel into the net. Tzolis credited with the goal for now. Couldn't make it up sometimes

25 PENALTY Araújo brought down a yard inside the area. Skov Olsen booked for the challenge. VAR check ongoing. The referee had no hesitation in awarding it in real time.

29 Overturned. Free kick awarded maybe 3 inches outside the 18 yard box.

30 Gyökeres beats the wall but his effort goes over the bar by a couple of yards. There's going to be an awful lot of additional time after that wait. Second penalty overturned against Araújo in two games.

32 Appeals for handball as the cross came in from the left. Definitely struck the defenders hand clearly but nothing given. Sporting may well feel aggrieved at that decision

33 Gyökeres is shown a yellow for a foul on Mechelen. I'm not convinced that's even a foul let alone a booking. Gyökeres looks perplexed. The Swede has looked back to his best tonight, full of purpose. I'll be amazed if he leaves without adding his name to the score sheet at some point.

38 Smart save from Israel low to his right from Olsen inside the D.

39 Israel pulls up behind the goal as the ball went out for a corner. That didn't look great. That could well be his night over... No, he'll continue for now

40 Quaresma and Tzolis with a huge clash of heads. That looked particularly unpleasant especially for Quaresma who actually looks like he was elbowed there when you see it from the reverse angle. He booked Gyökeres for less.

42 Yellow to Tzolis. Think the referee has that spot on there. Not sure why he's reacting as if he did nothing wrong

43 Quaresma leaves the field in tears. Fucking pathetic reaction from the home fans singing cheerio. He's been elbowed in the head. Fucking cunts.

44 St Juste on for Quaresma

45 Tzolis runs onto the pitch before he got the call to come back on. Hjulmand asking the question about whether that was a second yellow. Should have been a red for the elbow on Quaresma quite frankly. Referee sensibly picks the ball up and just takes back control of the situation

10 minutes shown

+3 Onyedika shown a yellow for a foul on Trincão

+10 Tzolis fires the ball at Israel from five yards who takes the ball in the face. Felt that one

Half time

Club Brugge 1 Sporting CP 1

I think that's the longest half of the season so far for Sporting. It started so brightly with the opening goal within the first three minutes and has gone south ever since; The deflected equaliser, the penalty overturned, the injury to Quaresma which saw him depart in tears. It's definitely not been dull. Oh and let's not forget the injury to Inácio before we'd even kicked off.

Everything good for Sporting has come through Gyökeres who has been a real handful for the Belgian defence. Quenda looks like he is struggling to adapt to a new position in a role no one wants to make their own with Gonçalves still out injured. Harder surely is the best option albeit having said that Gyökeres probably is but he'll drift anywhere he likes anyway.

I just remembered that I had Quaresma to score anytime at 22/1. Couldn't make that shit up could you. Sorry everyone.

Second half

Sporting get us back underway. Going to be a late one in Belgium after all the additional time already played. Let's get to full time without any more injuries please. Israel has come back out for the second half

47 Quaresma now credited with the own goal to compound his miserable night. I think I should get that bet at 22/1 personally. I know that's not how it works but he did score anytime

50 I get the feeling Gyökeres will need just the one opportunity tonight to score and he'll take it. Question is will he get one?

51 Mignolet booked for time wasting as he picks the ball up beyond the far right touchline having chased the ball with his defenders nowhere in sight. Catamo also booked presumably for a handball moments earlier.

53 St Juste also shown a yellow at some point. No idea what that was for with the D.O.G.s on major delay

55 St Juste goes through the back of Tzolis. That was a second yellow all day long and remarkably not given. I'm sure Tzolis got blood rolling down his head so how is he still on the pitch?

57 Sadly this game seems to have died as a spectacle in the second half…Tzolis argues that point I've just written as his shot from 19 yards goes a whisker past the right hand post. Given he's bleeding would that have been disallowed had it gone in given he shouldn't be on the pitch. Am I being facetious?

60 Finally the referee calls the physio on. He looks like he took three stitches in the clash with Quaresma in the first half. Still doesn't excuse his forearm to the face of Quaresma

63 Sporting definitely knocking on the door now. Geny the main man wide right this half. It's still all about that final pass which has been missing in recent games.

71 I'm not saying this game is boring but I've just realised I'm not even watching it now. Good job I don't get paid to do this.

75 Pereira would do well to start thinking about getting some fresh legs on about now.

76 Araújo found Quenda in space on the left, he cleverly cut the ball back into the centre of the box only to find the closest player in a white shirt was somewhere on the French border.

77 Yellow to Araújo who slipped and followed through on Seys. Not sure what the referee thought he could have done there, clearly wasn't any intention

79 Jashari shoots from range, just misses the onrushing Nilsson and the ball goes well wide. Poor shot which ironically could have been an amazing pass but was nothing more than a poor shot.

80 Finally Sporting make a substitution… Esgaio for Araújo. Fuck me. Have we shut up shop for the point? That never ends well does it

82 Hjulmand booked for dissent

83 GOAL As I was saying that never ends well does it. Club Brugge 2 Sporting CP 1. Nilsson slots past Israel. St Juste was playing him on in the middle as his teammates had pushed up on the left.

85 Header back across goal from Gyökeres found Trincão who could only volley the ball into the ground and up into the arms of Mignolet

86 Harder on for Quenda. *Slow claps. Do they think they're going to get another ten minutes additional time? Too late!!!

Plus five shown

+7 Mignolet gathers a long punt into the box. It's taken him close on 40 seconds from catching the ball, falling down and getting back up to kicking it. Finally the final whistle goes. You'd think the home side had won the league with their celebrations. Didn't realise we're that much of a scalp.

Full time

Club Brugge 2 Sporting CP 1

The final word

Bollocks.

I'm tempted to leave it at that in the very literal sense of the final word. One side wanted that in the end and it wasn't the side from Lisboa. You get what you deserve and in the end that was nothing.

I'm not sure I can type the sound that just came out of my head. It started with the thought of did this side beat Manchester City last month I know that much at least. I'm starting to think I might have dreamt it after recent weeks. Then it flowed out through from my mouth in a series of jumbled vowels and consonants. I'll apologise in advance for what follows.

I mentioned prior to kick off about the logic of using Bragança and Morita in the starting XI with Hjulmand last time out and how that decision has come back to haunt the new mister. If you're going to take that gamble then why not take the gamble with Harder on the left, because surely he's the solution? You've got Gyökeres holding the ball up tirelessly for 238 minutes or however long that game actually went on for and no one capable of benefitting from all that work. When you do finally bring Harder on the games gone. What's he supposed to do at that point? Clearly the game plan with 15 to go was to settle for the point and as soon as I realised that I was just waiting for the suckerpunch and sure enough we didn't have to wait long. One side wanted the three points and that's what they got. That's a performance we've seen time and time again from Sporting in Europe. It's nothing new. The coach has changed but there's always that fallibility there.

You can't legislate for the equaliser. Just another bit of misfortune to add to a growing list right now. If the penalty stayed awarded then it's good night. That side wasn't coming back from that. Sporting in terms of quality were better, Club Brugge had more nous.

Sporting cannot defend and for so long they've not had to because they've been scoring goals at will. It's only now they're not it's become an issue but it's been there for such an incredibly long time as an issue. Playing two 17 year olds is a great headline if you win but when you don't it's an indication of how threadbare the squad is in certain areas whilst top heavy in others. That's not the fault of João Pereira that's the fault of Amorim and Viana.

At the end of the last game I wrongly had a pop at the mister for not being up off the bench not factoring into account that without his pro licence he can't actually do his job sat there which is frankly madness in itself but surely that doesn't prevent one of his assistants from getting up and barking instructions or offering encouragement. They're all sat staring into space like they're watching football manager on the screen in front of them and have no control over what's being generated by a computer. Well gentlemen this isn't a simulation and I hate to break it to you but you need to realise quickly that this situation is very real. You all need to work out what's going wrong and how to solve it very quickly before this season totally unravels.

The club has said they weren't going to enter the market in January. Well if they don't then they're going to be in real trouble. They need a midfielder for starters. No offence to Simões but he's not the answer right now. It's too much to expect one 17 year old to shoulder burden let alone two. Club Brugge didn't impress me but they are still Champions of Belgium. If this was the old style format then Sporting roll them at home not a problem, even with the current finger on the self destruct button. I don't know what the Portuguese is for how the fuck did we lose that is but I'd be asking that. Because all told we shouldn't have lost it. The issue clearly is we did lose. So starting tomorrow someone needs to start showing some leadership which is sadly lacking right now. If they don't then you might as well take €80m for Gyökeres in the January window and balance the books because he's now wasting his talent with us. I'd not blame him if he starts agitating for a move away. He's my man of the match for me tonight. Maybe only Geny would be in with a shout alongside him. Gyökeres can hold his head up at least and claim to have left it all out there. The role he played tonight is a thankless one. I did think about calling him the Swedish Andy Carroll at one point but there wasn't enough balls at head height they've all gone into feet.

Another shake of the head from me. I should have stuck with the one word because it summed it up perfectly so I'll try a second time.

Bollocks.