Sporting CP 1 FC Porto 2
Sporting CP v FC Porto
Saturday August 30th, 2025
Estádio Jose Alvalade
Matchday 4
The Warm Up
As human beings it would appear that we're hard wired to look for meaning in patterns which in reality are no more than coincidences. We take things as a sign of what's to come be that triumphant or of impending doom. Let me give you some examples; this season and last Sporting opened with a defeat in the Supertaça but went on to win their first three games before facing Porto on Matchday 4. In those three games in each season Sporting have finished a game having scored 6 times, 6-1 away to CD Nacional last, 6-0 at home to Arouca this. Both seasons we've gone away to Madeira and collected 3 points from CD Nacional. Both seasons we've seen a player score a hat-trick, last season Gyökeres against Farense and this Pedro Gonçalves on Saturday night. Both seasons we're going into O Clássico against a side with a new mister who'd won their opening three games. Last season this same fixture also at the José Alvalade finished in a 2-0 win. All conclusive proof that coincidences are easily found. Sadly they'll have no bearing on the result Saturday night.
For the longest time FC Porto were seen by many not just in
Portugal but European football as the blueprint to follow in how to run a
successful football club. Their buy low, sell high philosophy paying dividends not only
in the transfer market but also with success on the pith despite annually
losing their best players. Somewhere along the way however they lost their
golden touch, the model shifted to the purchase of players for bigger outlays which failed to pay dividends and the end result was crippling debts and suddenly they’d become a lesson in
what can happen when things don’t go right on and off the pitch. They find
themselves very much in a transitional period under the new club president André
Villas-Boas who ousted the late Pinto da Costa in April 2024 after the latter
had held court for a period of 42 years. His first major decision came to part
ways with Sérgio Conceição, a coach who had brought Pinto da Costa incredible
success during his time in charge with the club and someone who was very much
seen as an extension of the president. Much to the consternation of Conceição,
Villas-Boas first choice of Mister was his assistant Vítor Bruno who stepped up
to take his first senior coaching role. His tenure lasted just seven months
when he was sacked on January 20th winning 18 of his 29 matches
which included of course the 4-3 Supertaça win against the lions in a game you may well
remember Sporting had led 3-0 in. His replacement, the Argentine Martín Anselmi
didn’t fare much better and received his marching orders this summer after a
dismal showing in the Club World Cup in which they failed to win a single game.
They lost 2-1 to Messi’s Inter Miami and drew 0-0 with Palmeiras then 4-4 with
Al Ahly. His win record just 10 games in 21 matches. Participation in the
competition did however benefit the grape crushers bank balance to tune of roughly
€19m so not all was lost.
Francesco Farioli the man now charged with bringing success back to Porto. The coach is probably best known for his tears after his Ajax side failed to win the Eredivisie title on the last game of the 2024/25 season. I think it’s fair to say you wouldn’t have ever seen the same under Conceição. I'm not having a dig at him either. Young boys especially can only benefit from seeing grown men cry but this isn't a blog on the state of toxic masculinity in 2025. His career to date has taken him from Turkey in 2021 with Fatih Karagümrük, to Alanyaspor where he was previously the assistant coach, Nice in Ligue 1 and Ajax as previously mentioned. The Dutch side are renowned for their attacking style of play, however after a disastrous 2023/24 campaign, the Italian was surprisingly allowed to rip up the play book, instead implementing a more defensive style which felt like the very antithesis of the traditional Ajax model, however it paid dividends and with 5 games remaining they held a 9 point lead at the top of the table. The rest as they say is history. He now has a 2 year contract at Porto and as mentioned above has led his new charges to 3 straight wins and they sit second to the lions in the table on goal difference.
Last season's record reads finished 3rd winning 22, drawing 5 and losing 7. Their problems on the road with a record of 9 wins, 2 draws and 6 defeats. At the Dragão just 11 goals conceded in 17 games. Top scorer Agehowa with 19, Mora in his debut season next highest with 10. They recorded the most clean sheets in the league with 16 but had the least amount of tackles on average with 8.1 per game. Most possession on average in the league with 62% per game, 4th highest bookings total collecting 90. 3rd best goalscoring record and defensive record scoring an average of 1.9 whilst conceding 0.9 per game.
Head to head four games in total in all competitions. Porto with the upper hand in the Supertaça and 2-0 at the José Alvalade as previously mentioned. The lions gained revenge in the semi-final of the Taça da Liga winning 1-0 and finally a 1-1 draw at the Dragão.
Sunday night saw a comfortable 4-0 home win against Casa Pia. New
signing Borja Sainz with a brace, William Gomes and Nehuén
Pérez completing the rout of the Lisboa side who Sporting had beaten 2-0
at home in their opening game. This followed a 2-0 away win to Gil Vicente with
goals from Victor Froholdt and Pepê (No not that one). Their opening win was
against Vitória SC at home 3-0. A brace from Samu Aghehowa who finished second
top scorer behind Viktor Gyökeres in last seasons Primiera Liga and another
goal for Pepê (still not that one). 3 wins, 3 clean sheets and 9 goals scored
will certainly give their fans raised expectations going into O Clássico on
Saturday, but then again I’d guess they were equally as buoyant 12 months ago
following a 3-0 home win to Gil Vicente, a 2-0 away win to Santa Clara and a
2-0 home win to Rio Ave, only to lose 2-0 at the José Alvalade with second half
goals from Gyökeres and Geny.
A lot of their hopes you imagine rest on keeping their best players. Future Wunderkind Ricardo Mora is allegedly subject to a 70m bid from Al-Ittihad. Newcastle
United are weighing up a bid for Samu Aghehowa as they look to replace Callum
Wilson. Diogo Costa has been linked with Galatasaray who apparently made a €17m
offer which if memory serves me correctly is a huge drop from the reported fee
of €50m that Porto wanted for his services 12 months ago. Even as a Sportinguista
I really hope that Mora doesn’t depart Porto for Saudi Arabia. I wrote it last
season after the first time that I saw him play against us that he looks a real
talent and whilst I appreciate he will have to be sold at some point it would
be nice for Portuguese football fans to be able to watch his continued rise in
the game rather than have him vanish into the desert. He only has to look at
what happened to João Félix’s career as a warning sign if ever one was needed.
But as stated previously Porto are still hampered by crippling debts and that
sort of money for an unproven 18 year old is too much to turn down. That’s just
the sad reality of Portuguese football on an annual basis.
Despite those financial restrictions that hasn’t stopped Vilas-Boas splashing the cash this summer. Incoming;
Victor Froholdt - FC Copenhagen €20m
Gabri Veiga – Al-Ahli €15m
Alberto Costa – Juventus €15m (Yes that Alberto Costa who only wanted Sporting
in January. He’ll get a warm welcome to the Jose Alvalade on Saturday I’m
sure).
Nehuén Pérez – Udinese €13.3m
Borja Sainz – Norwich €13.3m
Jan Bednarek – Southampton €7.5m
Dominik Prpić – Hajduk Split €4.5m
João Costa – Estrela – Free
Luuk de Jong – PSV Eindhoven – Free
This alongside the money received from the Club World Cup has been balanced by
the sales of the following players for a reported €75.77m;
Francisco Conceição –
Juventus €32m having spent the previous season on loan to the Serie A giants.
Otávio – Paris FC €17m
João Mário – Juventus €12.6m
Gonçalo Borges – Feyenoord
€10m
Fran Navarro – Braga €2.7m
Danny Namaso – Auxuerre €1m loan fee
Iván Jaime - Montréal €250K loan fee
Samuel Portugal - Al-Okhdood €215k loan fee
Unlike say Ligue 1 in France, O Clássico and the Dérbi can decide where the title ends up. Rui Borges is yet to taste defeat as mister of Sporting in the league since he took charge in December 2024 but at some point it will come and we'll have to see how this side react. We know how they reacted following the departure of Ruben Amorim to Manchester United and subsequent defeats last season and it wasn't pleasant viewing. Games like these call for calm heads, something we've not always seen against a Porto side well versed in the dark arts which has led to a raft of red cards. We'll have to wait and see what if anything has changed under Francesco Farioli on Saturday night though to give Vítor Bruno his due we didn't see much of it this time last year in the lions 2-0 win. Despite looking great on the opening day against Casa Pia, we've not been fully at the races the last two games despite what the scorelines might suggest and Porto will be the first test of where we really are. September has been a strong month in the last two seasons for Sporting winning every game other than a 1-1 draw against Sporting Braga. No one ever won the league after four games, but that doesn't mean that 3 points Saturday night wouldn't strengthen one sides title credentials whilst weakening the others. I have a horrible feeling we could get turned over 2-1 and that Porto could be set for a real title push this season. I still don't think we can actually defend and the fact that Nacional should have scored from their three set pieces last time out is testament to that. However it could well be that Porto are exactly the same. The problem with the start of the season is you've too much time between games to overthink things.
Friday update - New mister Francesco Farioli has stoked the flames ahead of O Clássico by suggesting that Sportonf are benefiting from playing against ten men. So let's consider how many sendings off there have been in this fixture since 2020 - 10 in total. Only 2 of which have been for the grapecrushers vs Porro (twice), Coates, Paulinho, Edwards, St Juste, Diomande and Reis all being given their marching orders.
Transfer News
The exit of St Juste seems to be drawing closer with Union Berlin willing to pay €2m for his services. Clearly a week is a long time in football if a player's value can drop off €1m from the deal that had been agreed with Osasuna. Still a €1m drop seems like nothing having sold Matheus Fernandes to Southampton last summer for €15m only to see them flip him to West Ham for a reported €44m. Whilst Sporting retained a 15% sell on clause and will receive part of the 5% secured on all transfers for development it does leave you scratching your head somewhat.
Sporting B
The young lions winning start to the
season came to an end on Sunday morning as they lost 1-0 away to Oliveirense.
Starting XI
Callai, D Moreira, Muniz, Ramos. Blopa, Justo, Lucas, Dias, Mendonca, Ribeiro
and Couto
Substitutes
Anjos, Besugo, Silva, Nel, Gonçalves, Pires, Pontelo, Romulo, Felicíssimo
They return to action this Sunday at home to F.C. Paços de Ferreira at 11:00 hours.
Champions league draw
Paris St-Germain (home), Bayern München (away), Club Brugge (home), Juventus (away), Marseille (home), Napoli (away) Kairat Almaty (home) and Athletic Club Bilbao (away).
Based on collective co-efficient points the lions allegedly have the second easiest draw in the competition. Presumably that's because Athletic Club Bilbao and Kairat Almaty have the sum total of next to no points at all. The visit of Champions League winners PSG to the José Alvalade will bring Nuno Mendes home but otherwise we could easily be looking at another Arsenal. The prospect of playing Bayern in the Allianz Arena who are Bundesliga Champions once more doesn't really fill me with any confidence and neither does travelling away to Naples to face the current Serie A Champions.
We have recent history with Club Brugge who beat us last season. The less said about the two Champions League games against Marseille the better. If we finish with eleven men in the game that will be an added bonus. We had the heartbreak of losing to Juventus in the knockout rounds in the 2022/23 season. Athletic Club Bilbao we've met in pre-season but that's no indicator of what's to come. The only unknown is the home game against Kairat Almaty from Kazakhstan who came through the qualifiers. I'm not putting anything on us to get through to the knockout stages that's for certain.
In the markets
Sporting 21/20
Draw 5/2
FC Porto 12/5
Team News
Pepê out for the visitors after surgery on his retina. I'm sure Porto fans will keep one eye on his recovery.
Team News
Starting XI
Silva, Fresneda, Debast, Inácio, Mangas, Hjulmand, Kochorashvili, Geny, Trincão, Gonçalves and Suárez
Substitutes
Virgínia, Reis, Vagiannidis, Quaresma, Quenda, Simões, Harder, Lucas and Allison
One change to the starting XI following the enforced withdrawal of Morita against CD Nacional last week through injury. The Japanese international was replaced by Kochorashvili who'll make his full league debut for the lions. Travassos has now left to join Moreirense on loan having been named previously in the last two matchday squads.
Araújo, Diomande, Nuno Santos and Bragança all still injured. Reis returns to the matchday squad. I have to admit I thought he was banned for five games so I've misscounted or misread that somewhere along the line. Rayan Lucas comes into the matchday squad. Hopefully someone will have printed his name correctly on his shirt today after the pre-season fuck up.
Porto Starting XI
99 Costa, 74 Moura, 18 Pérez, 5 Bednarek, 20 Costa, 86 Mora, 22 Varela, 8 Froholdt, 17 Sainz, 26 De Jong and 7 Gomes
First half
Sporting in their traditional green and white horizontal stripes. Hjulmand presented with a jersey marking his 100th appearance as a lion from Varandas prior to kick off. Plenty of noise from the home fans. Porto get us underway, Sporting attack right to left.
13 seconds on the clock and Sainz strikes the post from a bicycle kick and the ball bounces back into the hands of Silva
2 Trincão strike blocked from 26 yards centrally
4 Gomes with a wild effort from 30 yards goes harmlessly wide
6 Mora with a dangerous run on the left dispossessed inside the area
8 Porto happy to defend deep and in numbers. Four defenders centrally with an extra man on whichever flank the lions are attacking
8 Suárez with a clever turn on the edge of the area makes space to curl a shot just wide of the top right hand corner
10 Raking long ball finds Geny wide right. He's fouled by Moura
11 Mangas with a wild swing from ten yards sticks the ball into the stand behind Costa's goal. Not sure which is worse the shot or his haircut
12 Sainz causing issues down the left again. Cross cum shot deflects off the boot of a defender towards Silva's bottom right hand corner but he's quickly alert to the danger and collects easily
13 Gonçalves shot blocked from 16 yards
14 Hjulmand cuts out a cross inside the area. He's going to have a big say in things tonight
15 Huge cheers as Gomes left Mangas on his backside and then slices the ball straight into the stands with time and space on his side
16 Yellow Bednarek for a foul on Suárez in the centre circle. Referee was sold a pup there me thinks by the Colombian
18 Mangas tries the same thing wide left and the referee unmoved this time
19 Lung busting run from Fresneda on the overlap with Geny who instead tries to play the ball back
19 De Jong fires straight at Silva. Huge let off for Sporting
20 Hjulmand to the rescue to block a Froholdt shot inside the D and out for a corner
20 Sporting break on the counter. 3 against 1. Gonçalves shot from 12 yards blocked for a corner. You really should be converting that sort of chance for me
23 Both sides putting the Clássic into Clássico even if it's still 0-0 perfectly soundtracked by a partisan crowd
25 Silva saves from Mora but the flag was up for offside in the first play and wouldn't have counted
27 Kochorashvili showing once more how fluid this team is as he slots into the left of a 3 every time Mangas goes forward
28 Red shown to one of the Porto technical staff who remonstrated a Kochorashvili block a bit too vocally for the referees liking
29 Gomes with a low strike from 20 yards easily stopped by Silva
30 Poor from Mangas who gives away possession. Thankfully Porto went backwards rather than forwards
31 Mora causing issues in the centre once more picked out Gomes in acres of space. Mangas concedes the corner near side
31 Hjulmand on defensive duties again heads clear a cross from the right
31 Kochorashvili with a diving stretch cuts out another Porto attack. Both midfielders playing a key defensive role
32 Sainz yellow as Mangas rolls about on the floor. That's pathetic from Mangas as he appears to roll about from the slightest of taps on his arm
34 Froholdt fires into the side netting from the edge of the six yard box near side. Inácio guilty of not picking up his man properly
35 Mora fires over from the edge of the far side of the six yard box. Quick turn of pace to lose Fresneda
35 The crowd is quite literally bouncing
38 Hjulmand picks out Geny who pulls the ball back from Gonçalves who trips over the ball almost as he strikes it into the stand behind from 8 yards.
39 Debast booked. No hesitation from the referee as he catches the foot of Mora with a sliding tackle
40 Free kick to Porto who went short. Long range effort into the arms of Silva. Can watch those all day long. Varela with the effort from as far out as 40 yards. They've not bothered to show a replay
42 Close up of Gomes showing his neck to the referee. Perhaps telling him where he likes to be kissed because there was nothing there
44 Geny goes down inside the box and the home fans make their feelings known. Moura falls on him with his full body weight and arm around his body. You've seen them given. Not this one though
Plus one shown
+1 Yellow as Geny brought down again by De Jong. Classic clichéd forwards challenge that one
+1 Suárez shot from 20 yards blocked
Half time
Sporting CP 0 FC Porto 0
Referee leaves the pitch to loud boos. The home fans feel that Sporting should have had a penalty just before the half time whistle blew for the foul on Geny. The defender certainly had hold of his shirt all the way outside of the box and definitely takes the winger out in the final motion from the first look. Maybe replays will clear it up or social media will just meltdown.
It's certainly been a good game on the eye. Sainz overhead kick almost giving the away side the perfect start. Gonçalves really should have put Sporting into the lead when they broke with three men. Both sides could easily claim they should be ahead and you couldn't really argue against it.
Geny has caused plenty of attacking threat down the right hand side for the lions. Gomes the same for Porto on their right. I'm still not convinced by Mangas and his reaction to being touched by Sainz was piss poor and it was just a touch on the arm. I've criticised Porto players heavily in the past, the likes of Galeno especially so I'm not giving our players a pass and Suárez was guilty of it too. Neither were a booking for me.
Mora has been afforded too much space as has Gomes and the danger is one of them will find the pass that finally unlocks the Sporting defence. Hjulmand and Kochorashvili providing great cover defensively though which is pleasing. This game could go either way. XG at half time 0.41 to 0.47 so Porto shading it in the chances stakes.
In the three games leading up to the Clássico over 270 minutes Sporting have a combined XG against of 1.11 with Nacional having caused the most issues from set pieces.
Last August Sporting finished with an XG of 2.94 to 0.49 for Vítor Bruno's men, with 17 total attempts to 8.
Porto had an XG of 2.68 against Vitória, 1.73 v Gil Vicente and 2.28 v Casa Pia so 2.23 on average. 52 attempts in total averaging 17.33 per match. There's something in their locker. Will we see it second half?
Second half
Shot of Ronaldo's mother looking pensive in the stands. Harder takes the applause of the home fans and looks genuinely taken with emotion by their reaction. Puts his hands together and bows. Porto players waiting for their counterparts who finally retake the field. Vilas-Boas and Varandas sat next to each other which is nice to see because it wouldn't have happened between BdC and Pinto da Costa.
Sporting get us back underway
45 Hjulmand finds Geny wide right. Fresneda once more providing support but Geny goes with a cross which goes out for a goal kick disappointingly. The Spaniard has covered some fair distance tonight all to no avail
47 Mistake by Costa and the goal was wide open but the ball just wouldn't fall in the right place. Kochorashvili with a shot in the end blasts over from 24 yards. That got the heart rate up
48 Better from Mangas as he stops a break on the right. Handbags between him and Alberto Costa who goes down theatrically
50 Fantastic interception from Kochorashvili sets the lions away
51 Suárez shot from 12 yards blocked and no corner given. Wagging finger from a fan in the stands to the referee
52 Geny fouled under the nose of the referee. At least he got that one right
53 Free kick from Gonçalves 30 yards out found the head of Hjulmand 10 yards out but he can only direct it over the bar
54 Definitely been all Sporting this half. Porto set to make a change
55 Geny shot from 16 yards blocked
55 Trincão brings a diving save low to Costa's right from 24 yards
56 Hjulmand bossing midfield again
56 ➡️ ⬅️ Mora for Rosario and Zaidu for Moira
58 Porto playing the offside trap to perfection again. Quenda stripping off on the bench readying himself to come on
58 Referee on defensive duties heads the ball out for a throw
60 GOAL Sporting CP 0 FC Porto 1. De Jong taps into an open goal from a yard out from an Alberto Costa squared cross across the face of the six yard box
61 Worrying scenes as one of the Porto players seems to have been struck by something thrown from the crowd
62 ➡️⬅️ Fresneda and Geny replaced by Quenda and Vagiannidis
62 Thankfully the Porto player wasn't seriously injured. What looks like a lighter and a small tube handed to the referee
63 GOLAZO Sporting CP 0 FC Porto 2. Gomes winding the home fans up rather stupidly celebrating a thunderous volley into the top left hand corner from 20 yards. Claims to have been struck by something again as he went down
63 Yellow to Samu. He's still on the bench. That's out the Neto playbook
65 Yellow Inácio who trips Gomes
66 ➡️⬅️ Huge applause for Harder as he replaces Kochorashvili
67 Yellow Rosario as his stray arm catches Hjulmand in the face
68 Gonçalves effort blocked for a corner from 20 yards
69 Quenda shot from 23 yards blocked
69 Quenda finds space on the right but the ball wouldn't come down for a Sporting player and somehow is cleared
70 Mangas header into the box ends up in the hands of Costa. Not sure how that isn't a back pass as the defender gets the last touch which goes back to his keeper
71 ➡️ ⬅️ Gomes for Gül
72 Gomes winding the fans behind the goal up again. This guy has nothing between his ears
73 As it stands Rui Borges about to lose his unbeaten league record as the mister …
73 GOAL Hold that thought. Sporting CP 1 FC Porto 2. Mangas with a hopeful ball into the six yard box. Pérez turns in an attempted clearance by Bednarek I think. That was calamitous. Hope for the lions. I predicted this scoreline. I'm going to be fucking gutted if I'm right
76 Quenda cross sliced by Bednarek for a corner. He's having five minutes he'd rather forget
77 Referee blows for a free kick after two failed attempts to take the corner saw Porto players hit the deck. Finally on the third the referee said that's enough
79 ➡️ ⬅️ De Jong for Samu. Prpic for Sainz
79 All the noise coming from the home fans as they try lift the players
79 Yellow Vagiannidis for a trip on Sanusi
81 Big ten minutes ahead for the lions
81 Suárez header from 7 yards goes wide. He again is convinced for a third time it's a corner which isn't given and throws himself to the floor like a toddler. Get up man
83 Please let this script be written for Harder
83 Suárez fires a shot straight at Costa from 18 yards
84 Someone has sat on the TV remote and turned the volume down in the stadium. Lot of nervous Sportinguista's
85 Potential match winning save from Costa as Suárez smashed a shot from 18 yards with real venom
86 Mangas heads wide from 10 yards
87 Costa time wasting for the tenth time this half as Sporting look set to make another substitution
87 Fucking awful from Quenda who passes to the advertising hoarding
88 ➡️ ⬅️ Allison for Gonçalves
88 Inácio loses the ball but thankfully the lions recover.
89 Hjulmand blasts over from 19 yards
Plus eight shown
90 Corner Porto. That followed a huge sliced clearance from Silva which fell to a Porto player
+1 Referee not worried that Porto have taken nearly a minute off the clock in taking the corner
+2 Porto player feigning injury from a challenge by Suárez. Soon bounces back up
+2 Harder shot blocked, then wins a corner nearside
+3 Lots of nails being chewed in the stands
+4 Quenda falls over the ball and gives away possession. Fuck me
+5 Silva saves smartly from a shot from 20 yards
+6 Hjulmand 24 yards shot blocked
+6 Allison shanks a shot wide from 19 yards
Full time
Sporting CP 1 FC Porto 2
The Final Word
I've had a bad feeling about this game all week and get my second correct prediction of the season. Fucks sakes. Porto had offered nothing in an attacking sense that half up until the point they scored. Literally NOTHING. The second goal just took the wind out of their sails.
Sometimes you get what you deserve and if that's nothing then you move on from it. Some people in the world have real problems to moan about in comparison to losing O Clássico. Stay Humble as Haaland would say.
Sporting will rue the Gonçalves missed chance in the first half. I've still not seen the Geny penalty appeal played back so I'll reserve judgement until I see it again. The winner was a strike of real quality. The celebration was stupid in front of the home fans, but equally stupid is the same sets of fans throwing objects onto the pitch and hopefully they identify them and ban them for life. It's a game of football people's. Some people need to grow the fuck up. There were three instances that I could see of objects being thrown onto the pitch at Porto players and if the same happened at the Dragão I'd be spitting feathers.
I've said for a long time that this Sporting side cannot defend and the first goal was one we've seen dozens of times over the years. It's nothing new and yet we never seem to be able to get to grips with it. The winner was worthy of winning O Clássico and better that than one of our boys scoring an own goal in the same manner as the match winner that we got our consolation goal.
I didn't think we played well against Arouca or Nacional and yet scored ten goals. Sometimes you get away with things on an epic scale. In the buildup I alluded to my worries about Porto. I wouldn't be surprised if they go on to win the title come May but the season is long and at some point you have to figure the club world cup catches up with them at some point. We'll see. We're sat as back to back Champions of Portugal and no one is taking that away from us. I'm trying to be a grown up here.
Question marks again over Inácio and Mangas on the left. Should Fresneda have done better for the first goal? Should Silva be beaten from that range for the winner? I think Fresneda certainly put a shift in and Geny was probably guilty of not using his runs on the overlap. I thought Kochorashvili played well enough and certainly didn't disgrace himself. Geny caused issues on the right but the final ball was missing. Quenda just continues to infuriate the life out of me especially when he trips over the ball to concede possession in a dangerous position in the final third and then passes Renato Sanches style to the advertising hoardings. Chelsea must be thinking we went too early on this kid. No refunds offered.
Trincão was like Casper the ghost. I'd forgotten he was playing until he had the chance in the 55th minute. Gonçalves offered more in comparison but again nothing to really write home about. Suárez went missing for a huge chunk of the game and touched the ball a grand total of 34 times. Spent large parts of the game arguing over corners never given. He has the same childlike temperament as Gonçalves suffers from.
If this is Harder's last game as a lion then at least the fans got the chance to express their gratitude. I think the kids got a huge future ahead of him. I'd have loved him to find the equaliser but it wasn't meant to be. We didn't see much from Vagiannidis but he's a neat tidy passer of the ball. For now he still doesn't do enough for me to take the right back slot from Fresneda who cannot be faulted at all for his effort. Allison hasn't shown anything in regards to the supposed talent he possesses and is fast becoming the new Biel. Would Araújo and Diomande have made a difference in this game? It's hypothetical I'll not waste my time answering it because we'll never know.
I guess all that's left is to try work out four players for man of the match and whittle it down. Hmmmm. I knew I'd come a cropper at some point this season. OK Kochorashvili, I liked his defensive work and thought he held his own in midfield. I'm going to throw Fresneda into the mix because he made some proper lung busting runs on the overlap and some will have missed those details. Fuck it, only three choices this week because everyone else was much of a muchness. Hjulmand gets the third vote and my man of the match. He was head and shoulders above his teammates in all aspects of the game. Probably the only Sporting player who didn't deserve to end up on the losing side.
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