Gil Vicente 0 Sporting CP 0

The warm up 

‘Twas almost the round before Christmas. Out on the Alvalade lawn there rose such a clatter, I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter. It was Ricardo Esgaio disagreeing with the referees calls and had he been let go, might have kicked him in the balls. In the final minutes Santa came down with a bound, but Gyökeres said fuck off if you think you're qualifying for the next round. I'm sure I heard him exclaim as he drove Clara out of sight, fuck off back to the Azores, your team is total shite. 

That was taken from the famous poem by Clement Clark Moore. Although writing that it could also be flake news. 

So off to Gil Vicente we go, will three points await that's what we all want to know! (Note to self - enough of the rhyming now.) 

So Santa came to Lisboa twice in December and it wasn't even Christmas. Once he stole three points and the next time clearly feeling guilty, rolled over and let Sporting qualify for the next round of the Taça de Portugal. (Note to self - enough of the Christmas based puns!) Fine. Have it your way…

Sporting travel to Gil Vicente off the back of a 2-1 win at the Jose Alvalade in the Taça de Portugal against Santa Clara as a Viktor Gyökeres goal saw them through after extra time. That takes the new misters winning run to two straight games following on from four straight defeats. Fans continuing to call for his head will have been disappointed by Varandas’ confirmation that the mister will be in charge until the end of the season at least. Speaking at the Stromp awards gala I thought he was incredibly candid and open when he said on the appointment of the new mister “it is an invitation that I will carry for the rest of my life as being the most ungrateful and the most poisoned gift to a young coach who is launching himself.” Blimey. I think I wrote at his appointment something along the lines of he's been given the keys to a top of the range Mercedes Executive class. Let's hope he doesn't drive it straight into a wall. To be fair to Pereira, he took it for a nice spin against Amarante and then smashed it into the wall against Arsenal, pranged it against Santa Clara, dinged it against Moreirense, lost the bumper against Club Brugge and finally limped home into the local garage. 

Thankfully they seem to have been able to start to repair the damage, although I'm not sure I'll be able to repair the damage this post is causing to my reputation with Christmas puns, bad rhymes and metaphors about football teams being driven like cars. If you're still reading this you've clearly broken up for Christmas and have far too much time on your hands already. Thank you though. 

Ask any Sportinguista what they want for Christmas and they'll say three points against the dirty pigeons in the derby on December 29th. Before that though an equally important game against 10th place Gil Vicente who sit just five points above the relegation places. Sporting find themselves a solitary point ahead of their biggest rivals who won their rearranged fixture to Nacional 2-0 on Thursday night. Sporting of course benefitting from their failure to claim all three points against AVS last Sunday evening. Benfica will of course point out that they benefited far more from Sporting's back to back league losses and well… they'd be spot on. Even a broken clock is right twice a day though. A win Sunday will temporarily extend the lead back to four points with the dirty pigeons not hosting Estoril until Monday night. 

Sporting will be hoping for a repeat of last season's away win in which they raced to a 4-0 half time lead only to come out in their flip flops second half and barely break into a sweat if memory serves me correctly. Trincão that night scored a brace as he did in the recent win against Boavista so another repeat in Barcelos wouldn't go amiss. Even Diomande got a rare goal, with the fourth coming by virtue of an own goal. Given Sporting won all their home games last season I don't really need to tell you that they also won at home but I'll remind you that the scoreline was 3-1 with another own goal, followed by a Gyökeres brace this time around. Gil Vicente had given the league leaders a scare with a 34th minute opener but their joy only lasted 9 minutes. You imagine Pereira would bite your hand off for a 4-0 win. The home side last won a game against Sporting in December of 2019. Despite them having history of winning at home against Sporting in December previously, since 2011 in 20 games played in all competitions between the two clubs they've managed 3 wins and a draw compared to 16 wins for the Lions.

Definitely missing for the home side are the suspended Vinicius, no not that one dear reader and disappointingly for myself, the wonderfully named Sphephelo Sitole. After Sporting's admin managed to miss the I from Israel the other day against Boavista when announcing the lineup, the Gil Vicente admin is always one keystroke away from announcing Shithole in the starting lineup and I'm praying to the gods of football that it happens one day and when it does I'm there to screenshot it. Maybe Bolton Wanderers could sign him to play at the Toughsheet Stadium. I have a suspicion if he came to England he'd be a cult hero whichever club he played for. You'd feel for the poor person having to explain why the fans are singing his name slightly mispronounced. I wish him a speedy recovery all the same from his injury. Two players who could feature are the festive sounding midfield duo of Santi and Jesus… no more? OK sorry. 

A solitary defeat at home so far for Gil Vicente after six games, with three wins and two draws. They did a ‘Sporting’ but for Vicente it was in the league with four straight defeats which was punctuated by a 2-0 away win to Vila Real (Nope me neither) in the Taça de Portugal. Away from home they're really struggling with five defeats from 8, scoring just 5 times and conceding 18. To be fair they have played the dirty pigeons and got spanked 5-1, Vitoria 4-0 and Porto 3-0 so those 12 goals in 3 games will slightly skew those numbers. However even being away from the Alvalade, Sporting will surely be rubbing their hands looking for a much needed morale boosting win by a comfortable margin. 

Top scorer this season is the Japanese midfielder Kanya Fujimoto. Yes that's right regular readers, the same Kanya Fujimoto I referenced in a previous post when discussing his wage compared to Liverpool’s Mo Salah and just how many Fujimoto's you'd get for the Egyptians salary. You won't read golden content like that in the Athletic folks and this is free, what more can you want from life? Well apart from that. Oh and that. Alright shhh I get your point now. You're all as bad as a wound up Ricardo Esgaio on a Wednesday night. If I was Sporting I'd have a quiet word with the Chairman of Vicente and see if they could get Fujimoto in a deal in January. We need some more bodies in midfield and from what I've seen of him he'd do quite well for us. 

Speaking of Japanese midfielder's a deal to extend the contract of Morita is on the table so fingers crossed he puts pen to paper. I think he's massively underrated and maybe some Sporting fans don't realise just how much he's one of their key players and duly missed when not in the side. It's typical that just when he finally gets a break from having to travel around the world once a month on international duty his body finally breaks. I still worry with Gyökeres we're flogging a dead horse. At some point they need to give him a rest. 

This being Portugal I'm never entirely sure when suspensions kick in but at some point after their red cards in the Taça the aforementioned Esgaio and St Juste will have to serve suspensions. Definitely missing are Gonçalves, Morita and Bragança who should all be back in the early part of 2025. Nuno Santos we know won't be back until next season after his injury. The big question for Sunday night will be who starts in goal? Kovačević had traditionally been the cup goalkeeper but was absent from the starting lineup on Wednesday night as Pereira started with the same XI won against Boavista. I think it's fair to say that Sporting really could do with a clean sheet just to get rid of some more anxiety with the derby to follow at home the following Sunday. Three points there folks and they might just lift Pereira onto their shoulders and parade him around the streets of Lisboa. Not to suggest sets of football fans are fickle of course. 

Let's hope for more fireworks on the pitch Vs off of it as news this week that Sporting's fines for the use of illegal pyrotechnics this season alone from fans has caused the club a whopping €300,000 in fines to date. That's not to mention the unsightly scene at the end of the Club Brugge defeat in Belgium when a steward was hit and Gyökeres and Harder were narrowly missed. That's a ridiculous sum of money and someone needs to be saying to the claques enough is enough now unless the club follow the lead of Barca and make them pay for the fines. At some point that's going to cause someone a serious injury or damage to their pockets with price increases in the cost of matchday tickets for example, which isn't fair on the other matchday going fans. Neither is it fair they lose their chances to travel away to RB Leipzig in the Champions League. That in turn doesn't help the players with no away support. Think people's THINK. *Points to his head a la Paulinho. Oh I was thinking about him this afternoon and how we need to sign someone that can head a ball in a forward position to give us an extra option in an attacking sense. I'll add one to my Christmas wish list.

In the markets 

Gil Vicente 6/1

Draw 17/4

Sporting 19/50

Team news

Starting XI

Israel, Diomande, Debast, Quaresma, Araújo, Simões, Hjulmand, Quenda,, Harder, Gyökeres and Trincão

Substitutes

Kovačević, Reis, Alves, Geny, Couto, Edwards, Arreíol, Fresneda and Eduardo Felicissimo

Keeping up with the festive theme, the mister John Pear Tree elects to stick with Israel between the posts. Given Kovačević is named as substitute for tonight and was for the Taça midweek game that may not bode well for his future prospects. Two changes to the starting XI, out goes Reis who traditionally operates on the left hand side. Whether that's a precaution ahead of the derby in case Inácio isn't fit I'm not sure but it does mean either Debast or Diomande having to fill in an unnatural position. Geny the other player to make way with Quenda coming back to his preferred role wide right and having written it for weeks, finally Harder comes in on the left of the front three. Prime opportunity for the youngster to show that I know nothing at all. Look I like the kid, he keeps impressing me what do you want me to write?

No Christmas tree formation of 4-3-2-1 but John Pear Tree did apparently ask Santa for three points. I hadn't taken into account when writing my intro that Porto were playing yesterday and now sit atop of the table.

New face is class with Eduardo Felicissimo amongst the substitutes. He turns 18 next month and has two goals in the Champions League youth competition to his name this season. There's a suggestion Miguel Alves is handed the 4th debut under John Pear Tree. I wonder if they have the sweet pear drops in Portugal? That would seem an apt name in England anyways for the kids coming through. At 18 the defender provides cover with Esgaio and St Juste indeed suspended and as mentioned Inácio still not fit. For the third game Quaresma starts despite being declared unfit during the week. Turns out to have been more flake news. Off the top of my head he's left the field injured in every game since he returned which cannot be the best of signs.

First half

Thankfully Nike having launched a CR7 inspired Christmas kit. Sporting play in their black, green and white horizontal striped number.

Gil Vicente get us underway, Sporting attack left to right.

1 Debast has started left of the back three with Diomande centrally. In a near capacity crowd you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the Alvalade with all the noise coming from the travelling fans

4 Sporting yet to test Andrew in goal who's conceded 24 this season and if memory serves me correctly was credited with an own goal in the corresponding fixture last season.

9 Araújo cross from the left finds the head of Gyökeres but his effort from 6 yards is straight at a defender and cleared to safety.

14 Josué heads well wide of the right post from ten yards and holds his head in his hands. Came from a free kick conceded by Simões midway in the Sporting half. Cross to the left hand side of the box was headed back centrally where Josué was unmarked.

17 Gyökeres operating wide left cuts inside and shoots from 18 yards and his effort curls past the far right hand post

19 Gil Vicente have all ten players behind the ball between the space of 18 and 36 yards. Sporting need to be sharper with their final ball otherwise we're looking at another Santa Clara league game where we're knocking on the door constantly to no avail.

22 Harder just gives a one handed shove on a Gil Vicente player who bit and retaliates with a two handed shove back. Harder has a perfect face of innocence as he looks at the referee. I didn't do anything

24 Santi with a low effort from just inside the box straight at Israel who claims comfortably. First shot on target from either side

27 Safe to suggest Gil Vicente have learned from the corresponding fixture last season. It's not going to be 4-0 at half time tonight

28 Santi rightfully booked for a late challenge on Hjulmand. That was naughty.

29 Quenda with the long ball trying to find Gyökeres cut out just, but definitely the right idea.

31 Bruno Pinheiro with pen and A4 spiral pad to hand. None of this iPad bollocks.

32 Quaresma concedes his second free kick in the space of three minutes he just needs to watch himself. One more and you think the referee will have had enough

33 You watch Quenda wide right and he's not taking his marker on. Frustrating from the youngster given you imagine Geny would fancy himself in a foot race

34 Araújo looks like he's dance skating on ice as his right foot carries on with Sporting in a good attacking position. He ends up on his backside and the ball rolling out for a goal kick. Sums up Sporting's first half

37 Cheeky effort from Kazu from close to the byline on the left wing. Tries to beat Israel at the near post but straight into the side netting

40 Sporting really need to pull their socks up with their passing in the opposition half. Long ball accuracy 58%, crosses 43%

41 Finally a shot on target from Sporting as a Gyökeres header from 8 yards brings a save from Andrew

Plus one added

Half time

Gil Vicente 0 Sporting CP 0

An incredibly underwhelming opening 45 as Sporting had to wait until the 41st minute for a shot on target. Sporting's worst enemy as it was against Santa Clara in midweek has been Sporting. Their passing in the final third has not been good enough. They've obviously not been helped by having to play an extra 30 minutes midweek but that doesn't really excuse the lack of accuracy. Araújo has been pitiful wide left. Out wide right Quenda has spent the half looking to pass backwards to Quaresma although he has at least looked good in his defensive duties. Trincão has been a relative passenger up front. Simões continues to impress in midfield and Hjulmand has been the stand out player for Sporting in the opening 45. With a more experienced coach you might suggest Pereira is playing rope a dope with Bruno Pinheiro trying to get them to go more offensive in the second half but I don't think the new mister is that clever yet. This could finish 1-0, 0-0, 0-1. Personally I'd change both wings with Fresneda and Geny or at least one of them at half time. I don't think we can even claim to have one eye on the derby. I just don't think their heads are switched on. Sometimes it feels like they've never played together. Very odd. Definitely the worst 45 we've seen in a few games. Usually even if things haven't gone their way in terms of results you can excuse their overall play. Not tonight. They just look an average side. Reis is warming up at half time.

Second half

Reis comes on for Quaresma. Shuffle at the back then. Debast will come to the right. Sporting get us back underway.

46 Corner to Sporting. Gyökeres shot on the turn and swivel blocked and cleared from six yards. Brighter opening 2 minutes than the opening 45 put together

49 Sterling defending from Diomande who was like an immovable object under pressure in the Sporting box and calmly played his way out of trouble

50 Calm header from Diomande back to Israel whilst under pressure again. Good two minutes from the Cote d'Ivoire youngster just restoring my faith that some of our defence can actually defend. Might start calling him David Bowie.

52 Gyökeres now operating wide right pulls the ball two yards behind Harder. Frustrating

53 Pyros going off behind Andrew's goal from the Sporting fans. Not content with the club already losing €300,000 they'll keep going.

54 How is that not a penalty? Defender goes right through the back of Gyökeres. Slow motion made it look even worse. Nothing given.

55 Reis shown the yellow. Got the ball and took the man on the follow through. Not sure where he was supposed to go?

56 Trincão heads clear the resulting free kick clear. That's his biggest contribution so far.

57 Reis goes down clutching his right leg and the referee doesn't even blow for a free kick with two players down. You can see why some fans will argue that there's an agenda against Sporting from match officials.

59 Diomande the man again at the back calmly breaks down another attack. He looks like the break in recent weeks has done him the world of good

60 Geny being readied on the bench.

62 Mboula yellow. Possibly for kicking the ball away.

62 Quenda finally woken up, beats two men in the area but is dispossessed by a third. Must have seen he's about to come off

63 Simões turns defender and blocks the ball out for a corner. You'd think he'd scored by his celebration. He'd have looked very stupid had they scored from the resulting corner. Still good to see it meant something to him

65 Geny on for Quenda. 20 minutes too late.

65 Bullet header from Harder from 8 yards punched one handed over the bar from Andrew for a corner

66 Harder with another header from a tight angle at the far post brings a save but may have been better putting it back into the mixer. Definitely a better half for Sporting. You feel the opener may actually now come

67 Top scorer Fujimoto comes on for the visitors. Let's hope he's not like a cheat code

68 Interesting having commented on needing someone that can head a ball this week that the majority of balls into the box have been to head rather than to feet

69 Geny with the turn of pace to make space fires in a shot towards the near post from 17 yards but Andrew down quickly to his left to smother the ball

70 Sporting are top for now but only by virtue of the 2-0 win over Porto. They need a goal.

74 Geny is definitely causing more issues wide right. His low cross is seen out for a corner. Harder slides to win the ball at the far post but it's cleared from the danger area before it reaches Diomande. How long can the home side hold out for?

76 PENALTY as Debast is brought down in the area. Referee had no hesitation. Not sure what Zé Carlos was waving his finger about there. VAR check ongoing. Referee is going to the monitor. Can't over turn a third Sporting penalty surely? He has. Trincão scored in the follow up play with the ball loose to make it worse. I wish I knew Portuguese to tell you why he didn't give that. I'm utterly perplexed

80 Geny fires in another shot which the keeper gets down low to save and again with a follow up shot. He's keeping his side in it for now. Trincão with the follow up effort.

82 Pretty sure the Sporting fans are singing in English we're gonna score in a minute. We're running out of minutes albeit there's been a lot of treatment and substitutions and I reckon we've 12 minutes to go with the clock just turning 84 as I finish my sentence

85 Debast quickly across to nullify a counter attack. That came from a touch like a trampoline from Simões. Didn't celebrate that one I notice

86 Couto replaces Araújo. To say he's been dog shite tonight might be the understatement of the evening. Quite frankly I'd be amazed if the Manchester City interest in him is true on any level

88 Lets hope I'm right about the total additional time to come

Plus six or plus eight... I can't tell, who chooses the bold font on these things in miniature white boxes? I'd say I'd need glasses if I wasn't already wearing some.

+1 Couto air kicks from just outside the left of the area. Again sums up Sporting's evening from an attacking sense

+3 Correia with I think more of a cross than shot brings out a save from Israel and out for a corner

+4 Gil Vicente look set for a well earned point as it stands

+5 Three Sporting players around the ball and one from Gil Vicente and they contrived to lose it. Unfuckingbelievable.

+6 I think it's plus eight. Not that it makes much difference right now

+6 Free kick to Sporting as Geny cleared out on right by Ruben Fernandes who was booked

97 Geny puts it straight over the bar to the delight of the gone crowd. That was shit.

Full time

Gil Vicente 0 Sporting CP 0

The final word

Well then what can you say about that performance? Let's start with Gil Vicente and say that from their point of view it was a well earned point. Parabens. I don't know who was given the official man of the match as the feed switched off with the referees whistle in his mouth. The admin clearly had enough of watching that shit and was done. To be fair I think we all were. But it wouldn't surprise me if Andrew got the man of the match and fair play to the lad given he had a shocker last season in the corresponding fixture. I think we're in all sorts of trouble on the 29th if that showing was anything to go by. I truly think we're going to get our arses handed to us.

The plus side over the 90 is the defense played well even if truthfully Sporting were lacking in any part of the field over the half way line. Araújo was truly awful tonight. How he's been left on for 86 minutes beggars belief it really does. He finished with 3 accurate crosses out of 11. His distribution from corner kicks was really disappointing once more.

Quenda twice in 65 minutes attempted to take on his marker. Look I get that we went into extra time on Wednesday and we've got a heavily depleted squad right now. But these are still professional footballers and I don't think it's beyond reasonable expectations that they should be able to pass a ball to a teammate with it heading in the direction of the goal. Instead it's sideways, backwards or lose the ball and repeat. Right now I'll be happy if we managed to win one of the two Taça’s.

I'm still confused why the penalty wasn't given but that's what you get when you don't understand Portuguese. I'm guessing he said there was no contact but he's not booked Debast for simulation and we've been additionally punished because he blows straight away when if the ball was still live it's a goal. I guess someone who can speak Portuguese will fill in the blanks for me.

So let me try find the positives. Well we didn't lose and we're top for 24 hours. Me clutching at straws? How very dare you.

Defensively we looked much better and my man of the match goes to Diomande who did appear to be playing in slippers especially at points in the second half. Israel looked better than he has done in any of the previous three games and keeping a clean sheet and not losing could be vital in terms of confidence and a European place come May. Each of the top three sides in Portugal is as fallible as the next this season. I don't know if Rag N Bone Man knows anything about Portuguese football but I'm guessing if I asked his opinion on Sporting his answer would be they're only human after all.

I thought Harder was an utter nuisance all night and whilst Andrew made a Hollywood save from his header in the second half he justified being picked ahead of Quenda for me. Gyökeres looks better operating from either flank than he does down the centre right now. He needs a rest. Problem is when can you give it to him? Wednesday would have been a good time but the pressure on Pereira means he's little choice but to not start him each week.

As for Trincão tonight he's like a Galapagos tortoise that popped himself back into his shell. Apart from a clearance I can't think of him making a telling contribution.

I get that Pereira wants to show faith in his players but Araújo at half time had done nothing to warrant him staying on. I get taking Quaresma off was probably wise given his inclusion was a gamble in the first instance but I'm pretty sure as it's not in a substitution window you can bring more than one player on at half time. If I'm wrong I'm happy to be corrected. Those decisions I guess are harder at the start of your coaching career, especially when things haven't gone to plan in the first few games. Hopefully they get easier.

We need bodies and the transfer window is almost open but apparently we're only looking at someone for the Gonçalves role. I'm like really? I mean you can play Harder in there and try get another forward in. We're light on midfielders. Personally I'd see if you can get Kovačević out on loan and bring another keeper in on loan until May. We've got the option of bringing loans in. There's nothing that says you have to sign a player. I know the club have moved away from that model that they used to rely on but when you look at last January in Koindredi and Rafael coming in I'm sorry but that's awful business on the clubs part. I wonder if they can recall Essugo from his loan in the winter window? They sold Matheus Fernandes to Southampton to allow them to keep hold of other players and ironically right now he'd probably have been a great option to have. Even Sotiris would have been an option albeit we know that Amorim didn't fancy him and you couldn't predict a change in coach in November. Amazingly one side hasn't improved since the change and the others form has nosedived off a cliff. Couldn't make that up could you really.

Look there's more to life than a game of football. There’s a world out there where people have real problems. Drawing away to Gil Vicente is not the end of the world. Will I say the same if we lose on the 29th. I'm not going to insult your intelligence dear readers.

Thank you all for your support in 2024. I wish you and all your families a Happy Christmas.