AVS Futebol SAD 2 Sporting CP 2

The warm up

Finally Sporting's run in the Champions League has come to an end and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Sure there will be some who are naturally disappointed. I'm not one of them however, I'm mightily relieved although maybe that's an age thing when you're thinking there's too much football. At the start of the campaign had you put an offer on the table which included beating the 2023 Champions League winners 4-1, going away to the 2024 Champions League runners up with a depleted squad and getting a draw, to me that wouldn't have sounded so bad. Throw in a start which would see you second in the table at one stage and qualifying for the play offs and actually it starts to read like a deal you'd have probably taken. Basically I've seen us far worse in European campaigns over the past decade I've followed the club. 

How many sides could have gone to Dortmund without the level of players that we did and come away with a draw? Let's not forget Dortmund put seven past Celtic earlier on in the competition and they've got the competition's top scorer amongst their ranks. No Gyökeres, Trincão or Gonçalves - that's our starting forward line sat at home. No Bragança, Morita, Geny or Nuno Santos - that's an entire midfield four out even if Bragança might be second fiddle. St Juste has been a regular starter in the backline under Rui Borges. Bragança aside you can argue that's seven of your starting lineup unavailable. We'd three teenagers start the game in Quenda, Simões and Harder. Nine of the bench were 20 years of age or under. Your back line is 21, 22 and 23 years of age respectively. Biel again is only 23. That's quite some feet especially given the tie was over after losing 3-0 the first leg. That result was about resilience and showing pride. We might not have had an attacking threat but we didn't give up and yes we were fortunate at times but we dug in deep. Between now and the end of the season surely our fortunes have to improve in regards to injuries? There will be times when we have our backs to the wall and if and when those times come then the mister will be able to point to the night in Dortmund and remind players of what they are capable of. I've no doubt in my mind that at the end of May the title will be won by the finest of margins. I have no idea if Sporting will be crowned back to back Champions. If they are, they will have had to overcome huge adversity. Not just by the ridiculous amount of injuries suffered but with the change of coach not once but twice and a change in system to boot. If it's not to be then you can give a multitude of reasons as to why things didn't go according to plan. Let's not kid ourselves, this is a league where the neighbours have the biggest financial budget and in most leagues around the world that in itself is usually enough to guarantee you success. Last season it wasn't and four seasons ago it wasn't and hopefully this season it won't be again. Yet we are always fighting against someone with that bigger pot of money and thus at a natural disadvantage. More money should equal a better squad and on paper things can look strong, but games are won and lost on the pitch and on that pitch you're dealing with 22 men, any of whom could have a momentary lapse in concentration that costs their side the game. Equally they may have a moment where they conjure up that moment of rare quality and genius. You've three officials who can change the course of a game through their actions as well as those covering VAR. Two misters and their coaching staff, the medical teams, the support staff, the list goes on of people who can influence the outcome of a game in one shape or another. Things will go wrong, things will go against you, the question remains whether you can overcome adversity?

It's a really hard thing for many people in life to get a true perspective on things especially when half the time you've got your nose pressed firmly up against the glass. To instead be able to take that step back and to try to look at things for what they truly are. It's not like you can go to your supermarket and buy yourself a job lot of perspective, some for now and we’ll put some aside for a rainy day and the same with hindsight. Life would be so much easier if you could. Too many people subscribe to a narrative force-fed to them of a course of action that should take place. Take the midweek game - Sporting should have attacked more, gone for the result in Germany blah, blah, blah. Why? They weren't about to win the Champions League for crying out loud. Should we care that they've chosen to prioritise the league over Europe? Maybe some do but taking that step back, to me it made perfect sense. To those who say we've devalued the competition by leaving Gyökeres and Trincão in Lisboa, well I say UEFA did that when they added two extra games in the first phase. Six games was plenty, usually more than enough to shoot ourselves in the foot and get back to things on the domestic front quicker. We don't have a deep squad like the biggest teams in Europe. We don't have the luxury a club like Barcelona does per se in Spain when a player is injured long term to bring in an emergency loan as cover. So I'm sorry for those who wanted to see Gyökeres and Trincão flogged for another 90 minutes but bollocks to you. The draw in Germany was more than creditable considering the circumstances. 

Sometimes the winning comes off the pitch rather than on it. To win in life is much sweeter especially in important victories like when we learn to not point the finger of blame at others. No one from the top to the bottom of this fine institution is deliberately making decisions to cost Sporting in any competition. There are those in society that will have you believe that your own woes are all because of someone else. You should listen instead to people that make you think about the huge part that you play in your own life. Accept the choices and decisions we make may not always have been the best, that there are things you could have done differently. Put simply most things are actually my own fault. If and when you can accept that, then you won't be guided by those intent at pointing the finger of blame. If we don't win the title it won't be the fault of Federico Varandas at the top or of João Pereira thrust forward into a position he wasn't quite ready for yet. It won't be because of individual errors. It won't be because of injuries to key players during the season and it won't be because of refereeing decisions. It won't be because there's more games in the Champions League, or because we didn't sign our targets, or because of Marcus Edwards’ behaviour. It will be a collective of all those things, but football echoes life, it's not a special case. We win together and we lose together. A unified club will always be stronger than a disenfranchised club full of insurrection. Look at the club Amorim left us for. Surely that's got to be like booking a holiday from a glossy brochure only to find you've been royally mugged off. If he knew then what he does now he wouldn't leave. Yet he's clearly a man that doesn't want to live with the what ifs. It won't be his fault either, one man doesn't make a club on his own. Success is down to the sum of all the parts and a good dose of fortune along the way. 

Here I am writing about perspective and it sounds like I'm getting the excuses in early doors, like I've already lost hope and belief. So what if I turn all that I just wrote on its head. What if come May we do become back to back Champions? Would that be one of, if not the greatest league title win in the history of Portuguese football? All those things above that someone could use to point the finger of blame at, yet this time the only pointing is to go all this happened but we got through it all. This is what can be achieved. These are things we can learn from. How do we ensure that the next season and the season after these things don't happen again? Everything is a potential learning experience, you just have to choose to learn from them. Without acceptance you'll never grow. Without perspective you'll never learn acceptance. It's a virtuous cycle. 

Right enough of the philosophy class 1.01 and onto the game at hand; AVS Futebol SAD away at the Estádio Clube Desportivo das Aves. Rolls off the tongue doesn't it. Meu querido Dios that looks a proper stadium, a hulking lump of concrete sat aside a big hill. One of those grounds where your feet will either feel lighter or heavier depending on the result at the end of the game. Give me the choice of going to AVS away or Tottenham away and I'll choose the former everyday of the week.

If this club was a person it would be a toddler in nappies. That's not me being rude by the way, that's a quite literal definition having only been formed in its current iteration in 2023. Here they somehow find themselves in the top flight of Portuguese football. Forget that they find themselves third bottom going into this game, that's still in my book a staggering achievement for a club of their size. They're a point off Estrela, three off Gil Vicente, four behind Nacional and five off Arouca with 12 games to play. OK their run in includes Sporting, Porto, Benfica and Braga but the other eight games see them take on the likes of Arouca, Boavista and Estrela. I imagine if you'd offered them to be in with a strong chance of staying up at this time of the season they'd have certainly taken it. They've got a better home record than Famalicão this season and one of their two wins was 2-0 at home to Benfica. Importantly for AVS out of the 11 played here they've lost only 4. If they can turn some of their draws into wins then their home form might be good enough to keep them up. Like things at the top of the table, the lower placings look set to come down to the finest margins. Let's not forget in Portugal if AVS finished in their current position that would see them go into a play off. To date they've recorded three wins and four draws at home. Goals like with all smaller clubs are hard to come by scoring just nine times at home. Then there's the matter of stopping them at the other end of course. When the two sides met at the José Alvalade Sporting won 3-0 with a Gyökeres brace and the opener coming from Conrad Harder. That AVS finished the game with an XG of 0.07 will hint that the visit of the league leaders isn't one they'll expect to come away with three points from. Yet they'll look to Arouca for inspiration last week and ask the question why not us? Then maybe they'll have looked at Sporting resting Gyökeres and Trincão and thought you utter bastards. I imagine they'll be without Rodrigo Ribeiro unable to play against his parent club. At least unlike his loan to Nottingham Forest last season he's getting valuable game time. Mind you we'd have said that about Matheus Fernandes and then we sold him to Scumhampton and we might well be saying it about Dário Essugo this summer as well. That's how football works in Portugal in case you'd failed to notice. 

AVS biggest win came against Vitória which might have only been 1-0 but that gets you the same points as a 6-1 away to Nacional does last time I checked. Who was the Vitória coach that day … Yep one and the same. But let's be realistic they've had one win in the last 19 games. That run of bad results coincided with the 3-0 loss to Sporting. Yet there's 9 draws in there. Any AVS fans wanting a lesson on abject hope read my last BVB posts introduction. Then question as you all should whether there are better things you could be doing with your life than reading my dribble. Thank you though it is appreciated and I love you all. Yes… even you. 

Eleven different goalscorers for AVS in the league, John Mercado leading the charge with just 3 however. Grau, Lopes, Assuncao and maybe the not so evergreen Nene all with 2. Then our boy Ribeiro one of six players with a solitary goal to their name. They all count. They may be third bottom in the league table, but one table they are bottom of is the shots on target per match one sat 18th with an average of 2.8 and a shot conversion rate of 7.3%. They're also not the most disciplined of sides having already picked up 59 yellow cards and 3 reds. Let's hope they've mostly been for simulation, disagreeing with the match officials and not for vicious fouls. You imagine they'll sit deep and be happy to concede possession for most of the 90 minutes. Away at the Alvalade they recorded an incredibly impressive 27 clearances. Impressive for them at least, just meant that once more our ball in the final third isn't what it should have been. 

Right now we hope for three points. We hope that a rested Gyökeres and Trincão prove the decision to leave them behind was a wise choice. As I wrote above a 1-0 win gets you the same points as a 6-1. Let's just do the simple things right, expend the least amount of energy to do it and not shoot ourselves in the foot gentleman. Of course no *Diomande or Hjulmand. What could go possibly go wrong? Don't answer that.

* Diomande has had his two game ban reduced on appeal and is now available for selection.

João Simões season is over after he suffered a fracture of the fifth metatarsal when he was withdrawn midweek after Gittens caught the top of his boot. An injury at the time that I said looked like nothing and he'll be fine only for him to then be withdrawn. Also above I have written surely our injury nightmare has to change for the better. Clearly fucking not.

In the markets 

AVS 7/1

Draw 17/4

Sporting 1/3

Team News

Starting XI

Silva, Fresneda, Quaresma, Diomande, Inácio, Araújo, Debast, Brito, Quenda, Trincão and Gyökeres

Substitutes

Israel, Reis, Harder, Biel, Esgaio, Anjos, Felicíssimo, Mendonça and Moreira.

Out go Esgaio and Reis replaced by Fresneda and Araújo. Presumably set for a 3-4-3 again with Quaresma, Diomande and Inácio supported by those two wide left and right. Hjulmand both suspended and injured, Simões season now over so Debast and a full league debut for the youngster Brito. The big news of course the return of the rested Trincão and Gyökeres. Biel and Harder, the two who miss out. Limited options on the bench with four more experienced options and four youngsters. I'll keep it all crossed that the midweek rest pays off up front and that potentially we can rest players second half.

Just an additional note that Sporting start second in the table following the dirty pigeons 3-0 home win against rock bottom Boavista. They will need more shots on target than they managed against BVB on Wednesday night as Harder registered their solitary effort over the course of 90 minutes. That was the lowest figure since the start of last season and even in games under the departed João Pereira, Sporting always carried more of a goal threat. With Trincão's absence, Quenda is now the only Sporting player to now have played in every game in every competition this season which is all the more remarkable when you consider he's still just 17 years of age.

First Half

Inácio team captain for the day with the absence of Hjulmand. New surroundings for the Lions. AVS come out to a song to the tune of the famous Maradonna song. There's some useless trivia for you. Sporting in black with white and green horizontal stripes again line up in the 3-4-3 they started the season under Amorim with. Poor old Brito just a white box on the team line ups, an after thought of the TV company who could have at least asked for a photo of the young player. AVS get us underway Sporting attack left to right.

1 AVS defence pressurised into an early mistake. Sporting will look to capitalise on the new found desire of coaches to have teams play out from the back even against vastly superior opponents

6 Gyökeres off and running to the left of the area, tries to cut the ball back but it's knocked out for a corner

7 Diomande has the ball in the net from 8 yards but the flag was quickly up for offside on this nearside. Flicked header from a Trincão cross from the right.

9 Not sure what the hold up is with VAR, Looked offside to the naked eye.

10 The referee is making the TV symbol. GOAL AVS 0 Sporting CP 1 as Diomande rolls away in celebration. I have zero idea who was playing him on side there.

11 Corner to the home side as an attempted cross is put out of play by Araújo

12 As the sun sets on daylight above the far stand there's daylight between the two sides and at the top of the table once more for the lions

13 Save from Silva low to his right as Zé Luis cleverly adjusted his body to send the ball goalwards from 8 yards following a cross from the left

14 Araújo with the drag back inside the area makes room for a shot which is blocked in a crowded area from 16 yards

14 Zé Luis brings another save from 24 yards as he bends a shot towards the bottom left hand corner but Silva down smartly. Incredibly he's yet to find the net this season in 14 league appearances

17 Gyökeres off to the races wide right tried to tee up Quenda inside the area who missed the ball totally. Found its way to Brito inside the D but he couldn't keep his shot on target and it goes four yards wide of the right hand post

18 They've just shown the reverse angle of the goal showing the foot of the last man playing Diomande on. Can't blame the assistant who flagged offside because you couldn't see that from the front angle. Just goes to show those who moan about VAR miss it's obvious benefits

20 Gyökeres goes close. Trincão picked him out with a ball 20 yards inside the Sporting half across the halfway line. Running with the ball towards goal he cut in between two defenders on the edge of the box before his shot from 7 yards was saved from level with the edge of the right of the six yard box by Ochoa. If AVS get anything from this game they'll have their keeper to thank.

25 AVS defending with a line of 5 now all the more aware of Sporting's danger in attacking sense

25 AVS appeal for a penalty as a free kick is awarded inside the box for a foul on Fresneda by Mercado who makes his thoughts known with the man still appealing on the ground

31 Like many smaller stadiums in Portugal this has all the feel of a home game as all the noise has come from the away fans ever since the first whistle

32 The shift back to the three has allowed … hold that thought. GOAL AVS 0 Sporting CP 2. Gyökeres back amongst the goals. I was about to say the switch has allowed Araújo and Fresneda to get forward on the flanks. Araújo sends a pass across goal to the corner of the six yard box and Gyökeres taps home.

34 Rui Borges was criticised in a lot of corners for not taking the pair of Trincão and Gyökeres to Germany well they've repaid him with an assist and a goal with just over half hour of the game played when you discount the VAR

35 Devenish tries several times to take a lump out of Gyökeres but no booking

36 Jaume shown the yellow for a late tackle on Trincão and the referee shows one also in the direction of Djeras presumably for something said

38 Sporting now really ramping up the pressure on AVS. They could do with a big statement win tonight. Corner from the right headed over by Diomande

38 Another forced error at the back only results in a throw but Rui Borges has brought this side to his team and you can see hallmarks now taking shape the more time he gets on the training pitch

40 Fresneda and Trincão with little flicks and tricks out right cut through the AVS defence at will. Sporting are enjoying themselves on and off the pitch

41 Trincão shot centrally from 24 yards deflected for a corner

41 Debast fires well wide from 20 yards with a shot you thought had to have deflected off the defender in front but was actually nowhere near

Plus three shown

Half time

AVS 0 Sporting CP 2

This was 45 minutes that Sporting so desperately needed. 45 minutes where they could play with a smile on their faces, with a sense of swagger and enjoyment in front of the travelling fans who've not stopped singing since the first whistle went. After weeks of injuries and a general malaise, the lions have reacted perfectly to being knocked off top spot yesterday. The gap in quality was obvious on paper prior to kick off but it's also been clearly evident on the pitch. Have AVS shown Sporting too much respect? Maybe. Have Sporting just been too good? More than likely. Part of me wants to see them go for the jugular second half, another part wants me to see Gyökeres and Trincão put back on ice ready for the next league game. Let Harder have his turn here and against Gil Vicente on Thursday. Rui Borges doesn't strike me as a man that would stick two fingers up to his detractors but it seems a great call to have given Gyökeres and Trincão the rest. So many coaches would have taken them to Germany just to sit on a bench then maybe felt pressurised into bringing them on. Leaving them has proved to be the right result. Sporting were never going to win the Champions League. Players are humans not machines.

Brito hasn't looked out of place in his full debut. Fresneda and Trincão have enjoyed their link up play wide right and Araújo has been a nuisance from wide left. He's not always been the most consistent but now he looks a real upgrade on Nuno Santos and you imagine when he gets back to full fitness he'd struggle to oust him from the starting XI.

AVS had their moments. A two minute spell where Zé Luis threatened to score not once but twice but Silva again looks that upgrade on Israel and Kovačević who has had another nightmare over in Poland over the weekend and you wonder what they saw in the scouting department before he came in the summer.

If we can get a third early doors then maybe we can start rolling the big guns off and allow them to recover but as always try getting Gyökeres off the pitch before the final whistle.

Second half

Gustavo the substitute for AVS looks like he could be Araújos bastard love child. Reis is on for Sporting but only after finally working out how to tie his boot laces. Quaresma the player to make way.

Sporting kick off following a half time in which AVS treated us to Hadaways - What is Love. You'll never convince me Portugal isn't stuck in a time bubble.

45 Quenda drives forward in acres of space out on the left with Araújo in support. He tries to find Gyökeres but his pass is cut out. You cannot afford to give this team that much space and time

48 A smiling Gyökeres wide right wins a throw. Life is so much better when Viktor is smiling

49 Devenish waves his arms around as a free kick is given against him for a foul on Gyökeres. The Swede just grins at him again. This could just be 45 minutes of me telling you how my times Gyökeres smiles

51 AVS are losing their heads as another free kick given away and Lopes absolutely loses his shit in annoyance on the left.

54 Debast who scored that wonder goal in the Champions League makes you think he won't ever repeat it as a corner on the far side is played direct to him on the edge of the area and he clears the massive hoardings behind the goal from 20 yards. That would have hit the back of the Holte End at Villa Park which takes some doing I imagine

57 Tavares who looks every inch the part of a poor man's Cucarella is the fastest player to be penalised for a foul for AVS. That's fast becoming their sole option of stopping the lions this half

62 Vasco's night is done as ironically he pulls his hamstring trying to foul Araújo from behind

65 I'm not sure how many home fans were in the main stand first half but there doesn't look many this half

66 Possible lifeline for AVS as the referee runs to the monitor for a penalty check. Diomande makes contact with his hand in the face of an AVS player from a corner. I think this will be given. To make matters worse he's also got a huge chunk of his shirt.

68 Penalty given. Oh there are some home fans in the stadium. Diomande is shown the yellow. That was as stupid as Hjulmand's penalty last week. Can Rui Silva repeat his heroics from Dortmund?

70 PENALTY. AVS 1 Sporting CP 2. Djeras with a hop at the last moment sees Silva dive far left and he turns the ball into Silva's net far right

71 Well if Sporting had a plan to take men off second half that's gone out the window. AVS weren't going to score tonight if they played until Tuesday. Perhaps internal guilt at scoring the first cancelled by giving away the penalty. Mindless.

73 Referee has zero hesitation booking Rodrigues for a foul on Gyökeres from behind. Heart in mouth that the Swede wouldn't get up as he crumpled awkwardly but thankfully there doesn't appear to be any damage

75 Inácio takes a yellow for the team as he wrestles Djeras to the floor

76 Whistles from the home fans who felt Gustavo was fouled. They want Diomande sent off. Official wasn't interested.

77 I say they weren't interested. Referee goes to the monitor. Diomande is going here … the second yellow comes out, followed by the red. Sporting down to ten men again. I don't think there was deliberate malice there unlike the first yellow he was just late to the party. He doesn't even look at the referee as he's shown both the cards

79 Finally Diomande is off the pitch and down the tunnel. My heart rates gone up. The irony is of course that he could only play tonight because his two game ban had been reduced to one. Thankfully it wasn't a straight red.

81 Gyökeres the lone player up front picks the ball up five yards inside the Sporting half. He has six AVS players in front of him by the time the Cavalry arrived

81 Brito yellow for a foul on Devenish

83 Brito and Trincão off. Esgaio and Felicissimo on for his league debut. Either the youngster is stupidly tall or Esgaio is a short arse. 6ft 1 apparently

85 Am I avoiding the game to convert 186 cms into feet and inches. Maybe …

87 I have a horrible feeling we're looking at a minimum of five minutes added time with the VAR checks and substitutions

87 Silva down on his haunches inside the box. Israel yawns his head off on the bench. Presumably he doesn't want to come on if there was an injury then

89 Holding onto the fact the nurse says I've less than a 3% chance of having a heart attack in the next decade. My heart is pounding

80 Araújo taken out and Sporting will be in zero hurry to take this.

Plus seven shown

90 Harder runs down the touchline taking his bib off.

90 Esgaio fouled in the centre

91 Harder replaces Quenda who slowly makes his way to the touchline

92 Harder has clearly been instructions to just make a nuisance of himself and duly obliges

92 Gyökeres taken out by Rodriguez's from behind and shown an instant yellow

93 Another minute wasted. AVS players fighting each other or at least trying. Esgaio plays peacemaker

95 Corner AVS that came from a poor clearance from Felicissimo

95 GOAL AVS 2 Sporting CP 2. I actually feel physically sick. Medonça spanks the ball in low into the bottom right hand corner past the diving Silva from 20 yards

97 Free kick conceded wide left. Referee books Araújo and the player on the floor Mena.

98 No idea how long is left now…. Oh no time

Full time

AVS 2 Sporting CP 2

The final word

Unfuckingbelievable. Truly unfuckingbelievable. A game in which AVS were never at the races. Undone by their own stupidity again. Did I say unfuckingbelievable? It was like watching an instant replay of Hjulmand but with AI changing the players. First conceding a penalty, then the second yellow turning into a red. Felicissimo just had to wrap his foot around the ball in the play that led to the corner that led to the equaliser. Fuck me. You literally couldn't make it up. Sporting were coasting. Maybe that's the problem because second half it was merely that. Coasting rather than trying to find the third goal that would have killed things off. The signs have all pointed for weeks that this isn't going to be our year and I'm starting to believe them now.

You know what shortest full match summary ever from me. Araújo was my man of the match. I just can't even right now. Bollocks to it all.