RB Leipzig 2 Sporting CP 1

The Warm up

Champions League football returns after the winter break as Sporting travel to Germany to face RB Leipzig who have lost all six of their games in the tournament so far. 

Sporting come into the game off the back of a 3-0 away win to Rio Ave which extended their lead over Benfica in second place back to three points. Porto failed to close the gap on Sunday night as they went down 3-1 away to Gil Vicente and would end the game with nine men suffering sendings off in the 83rd minute and then a full 11 minutes into additional time - Just when you thought this domestic season couldn't get any crazier.* That loss was Porto's fourth on the road this season. Sporting have now played ten times away from home compared to eight at the Jose Alvalade leaving them with seven games on the road. Benfica will have to play nine away and Porto a further eight times. It really is still too early to call but every club needs to take any advantage where they can if they're to be crowned Champions at the end of the season. Sporting will go to Porto in February and then across the city in the penultimate game in what could prove to be one of the most important Lisbon derbies played this century. Time will tell. 

Back to focusing on Round 7 of the Champions League. The Bundesliga side sit third bottom by virtue of goal difference only, ahead of Slovan Bratislava and Young Boys. Bologna one place above on two points are interestingly Sporting's opponents next Wednesday and at the time of writing have managed a solitary goal in the competition. On paper Sporting couldn't ask for two better opponents as they look to potentially qualify automatically for the next round but football isn't played on paper. I'm certainly not naïve enough to think Sporting will win both games. I've still not got over the last time the garden looked rosey in the Champions League when we were paired with Spurs, Marseille and Eintracht Frankfurt and we ended up under the bushes with our noses firmly pressed in the horse shit. It's been a while since I've trotted out my favourite cliché but as I like to remind you all - it's always the hope that kills you in the end. 

In the Bundesliga the Red Bull outfit have lost just once in eight home games with five wins and two draws, scoring 15 and conceding 9. Their chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League took a hit on Saturday when they were pushed down into fifth place following a 3-3 draw with Bochum who started the game level on points with bottom club Holstein Kiel. The clubs top scorer Benjamin Šeško was suspended as was Ikoma Openda who in addition helps to provide the main attacking threat for Leipzig but even still you'd imagine they should have had enough quality to have overcome a side struggling to stave off the threat of relegation. Maybe they'd rested additional players with Wednesday's game in mind? This isn't an RN Leipzig blog and you're more than capable of digging further and working it out I'm sure. 

Benjamin Šeško is being linked once more with a transfer to Arsenal which if nothing else means I'm not as bored with the talk of the Gunners coming in for Viktor Gyökeres. Having grown up in the newspaper industry I do yearn for the old days of print media before all this click bait nonsense. I am always of the opinion that if you had the money to do a deal as a club and you wanted a player then you'd have it done as soon as the winter window opened because surely you'd want the benefit of them for five and a half months until the season ends. You'd not wait a full month until just before the window closes before trying to secure a deal. In the case of both players they're not going to be let go for peanuts. Sporting's stance has always been firm and reports are that Gyökeres termination clause isn't active in the winter either and by all accounts he'll be allowed to leave in the summer at a reduced rate. 

Apologies, this is why I do try to avoid idol gossip because it riles me. One player that the club cannot get rid of fast enough is Marcus Edwards having dropped their asking price to €10m. The player had apparently turned down lucrative moves to Saudi Arabia hoping a Premier League club would come in for him but he left England with a damaged reputation and now he's done the same in Portugal so you really do have to start to wonder where his career goes from here. Coaches will put up with so much when players are delivering on the pitch but when your contribution is zero you've frankly got no chance. United have got more chance of shifting Marcus Rashford right now if Edwards says no to Beşiktaş unless one of the Saudi clubs tries again for him. By all accounts Rui Borges doesn't even want him in the training complex; the relationship has broken down that much. How he's fallen from a first team starter to out of the matchday squad altogether in just over twelve months is staggering. I'm doing it again aren't I? Sorry! Moan, moan, moan like an old washer woman… 

Back to the game at hand, Leipzig have the second highest number of clean sheets with 7, one behind Bayern München. Overall they're out performing their XG by roughly 6 goals. Their issues are mainly coming away from home in the league having suffered four defeats. It's the Champions League that remains their real Achilles heel though. Well maybe the Champions League and Bayern München who handed their arses to them just before Christmas in a 5-1 thumping. At the Red Bull Arena they've lost 3-2 to a Juventus side who've drawn 13 in Serie A this season, albeit they are unbeaten in the league. Sesko scored twice in that game. They lost 1-0 to the current Premier League leaders Liverpool and then 3-2 last time out to fellow Premier League club Aston Villa. On the road they began their European campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid with the winning goal coming in the 90th minute. A real shock loss to Celtic 3-1 especially given the Glasgow side had their arses handed to them a month before 7-1 by fellow Bundesliga side BVB. Their other loss on the road was at the Giuseppe Meazza in Milano going down 1-0 to Internazionale. 

Unless you live under a rock it's hard not to be aware that the Red Bull owned side is pretty much the most hated club side in German football. I'd say they were the most hated but Dietmar Hopp and his Hoffenheim team could fight to claim the top spot. Both are owned by billionaires, the latter is located in a village of just 3,191 inhabitants. Their PreZero Arena has a capacity of 30,150, I mean come on do the maths on that one. I know I was being mean about the Estádio dos Arcos on Saturday being three sides missing but its capacity of 5,250 makes sense at least in relative terms. The Vila do Conde has around 80,000 inhabitants by the way and the ground is still too large unless the big three are in town for a fixture. Anyways this isn't a Hoffenheim or Rio Ave blog. As I was saying Leipzig are hated in Germany and this is because they've managed to cleverly adhere to the 50 plus one rule that governs ownership of German football teams but in a manner that basically gamed that system. They brought a small club in a lower league, changed their name and then brought their way into promotions up through the league's and all the way to the Bundesliga and European football in turn. None of this is new news so I'm surmising here. You'd imagine the Sporting ultras would have had a lot to say inside the stadium but oh wait, no that's right, after some cock threw a flare onto the pitch after the Club Brugge defeat every fan has to miss out. Fucking aye! So if the bell end from Oasis who looks like Parker from Thunderbirds happens to be doing co-comms for the game again Wednesday and says we're quiet he'd be fucking right cause there'll be none of us there. Karmas a bitch isn't it. So just in case you'd forgotten the final score in that game here's a reminder - Sporting Clube de Portugal 4 Manchester City 1.

Regular readers will know I'll award a Sporting player as my man of the match every game. No I tell a lie I forgot one game but otherwise that statement is true. I'll also be honest where if an opposition player deserves it overall and I'll shout them out. So Saturday the stand out player was Miszta having made eleven saves during the game. Yet at the game they gave it to Quenda. OK so maybe an optics thing where you don't want to give it to the goalkeeper on the losing side. FotMob gave Miszta a 9 when I just checked so I felt vindicated. I had it down between Quenda, Hjulmand or Harder and FotMob agreed though they had the Dane with the highest rating at 8.6, Quenda 8.5 and Harder 8.2. I gave it to Harder on the eye test rather than a data driven approach and allotted score out of 10. He did everything right apart from put the ball in the back of the net in my opinion. To cut a long story short here, A Bola gave Harder a five. A FUCKING 5. Are you fucking kidding me? I often joke I'm watching a different game but again, fucking aye! 5? Fuck off. If you'd said Rui Silva was a 5 I'd say fair enough because he didn't have a save to make and came away with spotless gloves and basically could have sat in the stand watching on keeping warm. He'll be missing from this game by the way because Sporting can't register Silva in the competition until the knockout phases, providing we're still in the competition of course. I watched Tiago Tomas play for Sporting. Harder had more attacking threat against Rio Ave than Tomas did in his entire Sporting career. I think he's got a huge future and I look forward to seeing him lead the line when Gyökeres eventually goes in the summer. Fucking five - you mug! Jog on. 

Rant over. Sorry. Word of the week following the win from the mister and players was happy. Such a nicer word than suffering which was Amorim's go to word. After his side's 3-1 defeat on Sunday to Brighton he said that his United team is the worst in the club's history. So kids a life lesson here for you all, when someone says it's now or never, maybe never is the better option. 

* Well it appears since I first posted the season in Portugal can get crazier. The script writers are having a field day. After three weeks in charge of Vitória Daniel Sousa has had his contract terminated. Let's not forget this is a season where he'd already had his Braga contract terminated after 4 games having taken over in the summer. Porto parted ways with their mister Vítor Bruno meaning the big three have all changed coaches during the season for the first time ever. Finally on Tuesday night the pigeons succumbed to a 5-4 defeat to Barca having led 4-2 with Sporting old boy Raphinha grabbing the winner. 

In the markets 

RB Leipzig 15/8

Draw 13/5

Sporting CP 27/20

Team News 

Starting XI 

Israel, Araújo, St Juste, Diomande, Fresneda, Quenda, Hjulmand, Debast, Geny, Harder and Trincão 

Substitutes 

Kovačević, Pinto, Inácio, Morita, Bragança, Esgaio, Brito, Simões, Gyökeres, Couto, Nel and Denilson Santos 

Tonight sees Rui Borges debut in the Champions League and he has an enforced change in goal as the unregistered Silva is replaced by Israel. St Juste is preferred over Inácio at centre back. Otherwise as you were for Saturday's win over Rio Ave. The substitutes bench has all the feel of a college outing where you were allowed on the trip if accompanied by a responsible adult. So we have Pinto, Simões, Couto, Nel, Brito and a first inclusion for the 17 year old Denilson Santos. Maybe Ricardo Esgaio as the elder statesman was on story reading duties at bedtime last night. I'll look forward to a double keeper pivot in midfield with ten minutes to go. I assume that's to adhere to some homegrown player quota as to why we have two keepers on the bench. I imagine young Conrad Harder has a point to prove after he did everything but score against Rio Ave only to see Gyökeres come on and find the net after three minutes. His little face haunts me still as the camera panned to him on the touchline. 

First Half 

Sporting in white with green trim will attack left to right. Leipzig get us underway

6 Sesko with the opening chance for Leipzig fires wide of the left hand post from 18 yards 

8 Openda fires a shot straight at Israel from 14 yards to the right of the area 

10 Harder let's the ball run across him cleverly to lose his marker and open space but his finish didn't match as he blasts over from 20 yards. Third opportunity for the youngster. I'd tell you about the other two but I was late to the party. Turns out my Turkish is as bad as my Portuguese. 

17 Sesko picks out Openda who fired past the far post from a narrow angle 3 yards out. Looked well offside in the buildup anf so it transpired as the assistant on the fireside is shown with his flag up 

19 GOAL RB Leipzig 1 Sporting CP 0 Embarrassingly simple opener. Cut on from the left across the box and Sesko taps in from 3 yards. Poor defending from Sporting to leave him with what's probably his easiest chance of the season 

22 Haidara puts the ball in row Z from 19 yards. Sporting cannot get a foothold in this game 

23 Xavi Simons tries with a low shot from outside the box. Israel quickly down to his right to save 

27 Sporting set to make an early change as Inácio is stripped and ready on the sidelines waiting for a break in play

28 Incredible tackle in the area by Baumgartner to dispossess Araújo who had been played clean through by Geny. For the first time the Germans were in real trouble there

28 St Juste withdrawn for Inácio. We'll see if that was tactical or for medical reasons after the game 

30 GOAL RB Leipzig 2 Sporting CP 0. Long ball to the edge of the box, one touch to control by Raum then gave him the space to slot the ball into the far right past Israel from 12 yards. Referee is running to the monitor. Openda seems to impede Fresneda which allows for the space for Raum to shoot. Let off for Sporting as the goal is disallowed. Sporting already looked like they had a mountain to climb at 1-0. 2-0 would have been the death nail in the coffin on this first half showing. If you didn't know which side had beaten Manchester City and which side had lost all six based on the first half you'd get the answer wrong if you were to guess 

37 Harder with his head in his hands. His shot from 15 yards deflects off a defender wrong footing the keeper but over the bar and out for a corner.

40 Quenda off to the races down the right wiing is clipped in full flow by Raum. We need more of that endeavour in the second period. Right now we just need to go in at half time and regroup. 

42 The ball just won't go in for Sporting as Fresneda tries to place it rather than going for power and the ball is cleared for a corner. 

44 Fresneda shot from 18 yards headed clear. Came from a smart buildup from left to right. Sporting have finally woken up

Plus two indicated 

+2 Trincão waltzes through the Leipzig defence but his ball back to the edge of the area is straight to a Leipzig player 

+2 Debast shot from 20 yards again deflects for a corner 

Half time 

RB Leipzig 1 Sporting CP 0

It took Sporting 37 minutes to wake up and start playing. Up until that point it had been a one sided affair but RB Leipzig at the end of the half showing maybe just why they've failed to win a single game in this season's Champions League. The opening goal was far too easy and had there been no VAR then Sporting I feel were done in this game when the second disallowed goal went in. However in the last ten minutes of the half the tide had turned and it was the Germans hanging on. This has all the hallmarks of a typical Sporting European performance. It's as if the Champions League theme adds ballast around their ankles and they're not longer capable of playing their natural game. Then at some point if you're lucky a switch flicks and they remember they can play. 

You imagine if Gyökeres can play for 45 minutes then this is a side which can get taken to the cleaners at the back. The problem is you could say exactly the same about our defence at points. Sporting need to play the half of the front foot. You only get so much fortune in this game and Leipzig seems to be running out of it. All to play for. 

Second Half 

Thankfully I don't have to pick my man of the match at half time because it would have been a hard choice to pick a Sporting player who deserved it.

Sporting seem to have picked up Manchester City’s habit of making their opponents wait before they come out for the second half. That's every game now it's happening.

Finally they re-enter the fray. Sporting get us back underway 

46 One minute in and we've seen the good and the bad of Sporting; Diomande equal in the challenge, Debast misplacing a short pass to Harder. 

50 I now have English commentary and inscreen DOGs - exciting stuff. Let's see if we can also get a Sporting equaliser. 

53 Morita, Gyökeres and Bragança on. Harder, Geny and Debast off. 

55 Gyökeres header from 4 yards straight at the keeper. 

64 Hjulmand brought down for a free kick to Sporting 26 yards out. 

65 Bragança fires his shot straight into the foot of the wall. That was poor. 

71 I have forgotten what an utterly miserable experience it is trying to watch games on a stolen feed 

74 GOAL RP Leipzig 1 Sporting CP 1. Gyökeres smashes the ball from eight yards past the keeper. He picked the ball up 15 yards outside of the area, continued his run into the box and there was only ever going to be one outcome in that situation. 

75 Esgaio replaced Fresneda at some point in the excitement of that goal 

77 GOAL RB Leipzig 2 Sporting CP 1. Well that lead didn't last long. Israel came quickly off his line to block a shot which parried straight back to Poulsen, over the Uruguayan and into the net quickly followed by Esgaio who couldn't get back quick enough. Not quite as calamitous as some of the scenes in Lisboa last night but not far off it 

78 Replays show Raum flashed the yellow card on the bench. That was always Neto's favourite trick and latterly adopted by Esgaio

81 Trincão shot blocked from 16 yards. Leipzig just parking bodies behind the ball now unsurprisingly 

83 Sporting ramping up the pressure as they look for an equaliser. They've used all five substitutions so if there's an ace up their sleeves it will be from those on the pitch

84 Gyökeres heads wide from close range at the far post. 

86 Yellow shown for a foul on Bragança right under the referee's nose by Orban. Not sure why he was protesting his innocence when the referee had a front row seat 

87 Vandervoort shown the yellow for time wasting with his goal kick 

89 We're starting to get into it's now or never territory and it feels more like never

Plus four indicated 

+2 Sporting keep knocking on the door but the quality of the final ball is appalling. 

+3 Corner delivered to the edge of the six yard box hammered clear. That's pathetic, absolutely pathetic. 

+4 Bragança effort blocked from ten yards. In the second phase of play Inácio heads over the bar from 8 yards and with it Sporting's hope of getting anything from the game 

Full time 

RB Leipzig 2 Sporting CP 1

The final word 

I'll put my hands up to the fact that I missed the opening 7 minutes of the game and about 12 minutes of the second half after my internet provider said I could no longer get Champions League coverage on my phone and needed a Sky card for a TV that I don't own. Well that's £360 a year you won't be getting then and me having quite happily legally paid to watch the Champions League now being forced to try to watch by other means. You don't want to read about that, so to summarise the Sporting performance instead - crap. I could leave it at that. 

When you watch the goals conceded back the first was poor marking, the second down to a goalkeeping error. If you're going to come off the line to smother the ball…then smother the ball. Grab onto the thing like it's a new born baby and you're caught in a torrent of water trying to save its life. You could see by Borges reaction on the bench when it went in that he wasn't impressed and exactly why he was in a hurry to bring in Rui Silva during the transfer window. If Silva had been eligible he'd be nowhere near the starting jersey. 

However we win as a team and we lose as a team and across the pitch we just were not good enough. You got the odd moment of brilliance, a waltz through a crowd of players from a Quenda or a Trincão but there was no end product. The passing into the final third was woefully inadequate. Sadly that's typical of Sporting in European competitions. It's like being tea total for 12 months and living in peak condition and then going to the pub, having half a lager and it all going tits up and out the door. That's not a Rui Borges problem. It wasn't a João Pereira problem though the stompy, shouty people un attendance at Clubbe Brugge would have you believe otherwise. Sporting played better in that game than they did in this one. This isn't even a Ruben Amorim problem although of the three misters he's the most guilty. I don't think you can even blame a gulf in quality between the German and Portuguese top flight football. Sporting just have this weird affliction (away from home especially) in Europe which they can't shake. Maybe someone hypnotised them and the trigger is the Champions League sound.

I'd not watched Leipzig in their opening six games and maybe they'd a point to prove having lost all six, but there were points where you could maybe see why they had lost. Gyökeres goal was down to his normal brilliance and all of his own making. Had he been on in the last ten minutes of the first half you could see Sporting having gone in level at half time and come out with their tails up. That tackle to dispossess Araújo when running through on goal was probably the critical moment. You knew how good a tackle it was because Araújo stayed on his feet and didn't do his usual theatrics in the box. Gyökeres you imagine would have had either had his shot away faster or the presence to cut it back and leave the defender sliding somewhere into next week. I might be wrong. It was a superb tackle either way. At 1-0 they're still in it. At 1-1 you're thinking OK we could if we're sensible in this push on and… no, don't complete that thought. It felt that quick. Probably because I'm always typing frantically at these points. 

Man of the match. I thought Fresneda did OK but ran out of gas. Probably should have done better to try to close the cross on his flank for the opener. Was maybe also fortunate to be given the foul for the disallowed goal. That I'm saying he did well despite those two instances does say a lot. This is going to be poor form on my part but I'm going to give it to Gyökeres simply for the goal. I just genuinely wasn't impressed by anyone. Gyökeres with Fresneda a close second and everyone else miles off in equal third - or last. 

***

Later addition to the post in case anyone thought I was being lemon about some of the second half chances for Leipzig not noted above. I just didn't see them as I was looking for another feed. So having watched the truncated highlights here you go...

47 Rush of blood to the head from Israel as he came charging out and flung himself in the way of Openda which left him way out of position. Ball fell kindly to Xavi Simons who rather inexplicably manages to blast the ball over from 15 yards 

50 Haidara strikes the right hand post with a low shot from inside the D. Sporting looking like a volleyball team waiting to tee up a spike struggle to clear their lines once more. Not sure if the referee eventually blew for a foul on a Sporting player in the buildup after a shove around the penalty area. How is it that one minute Israel is rushing off to almost the edge of the box and when he's the one that can come and use his height and punch clear he's no where to be seen? 

Do Sporting keepers like all clubs seem to do have them train away from the first team?

Is anyone capable of teaching our lads how to take a corner?

Asking for a friend.