Sporting CP v Atlético Clube Marinhense

Sporting CP v Atlético Clube Marinhense 

Saturday November 22nd, 2025

Estádio José Alvalade 

Taça de Portugal 4th Round

The warm up

The internet is one of the greatest inventions known to mankind but with every great invention there are always some downsides. For example for every medical advancement made there are side effects which we have to suffer and comparatively the internet in 2025 has launched us into a world of conspiracy theories exasperated by people in their bedrooms with clearly nothing better to do in their lives and their identities too tied into their football club. Every decision feels personal to them, injustices are found at every turn. It's now becoming too easy to ignore the most basic of facts, such as that humans make mistakes, that's why they put rubbers on the end of pencils. For those not getting that cryptic clue I'm referencing, of course, the corner that led to Sporting's winner against Santa Clara on Saturday night that has sent parts of Northern Portugal into a compete meltdown. 

Now full admission, when I watch Portuguese league football I'm doing so without commentary in the main and even when I have commentary, I don't understand Portuguese so it wouldn't change anything for me even if I did have it. My friend's border collie knows more Portuguese than me which isn't something I'm particularly proud of but it is a fact nonetheless. Side note - She's now in the process of teaching it to understand Hindu just to add salt into my wounds but that's nothing to do with corners that should or shouldn't have been. I won't lie, when I saw the replay of the incident in real time my reaction was that it was a poor challenge being highlighted because a booking hadn't been given or a free kick awarded, it had escaped me totally what had really happened. So there's my plate on the table as to why I didn't mention it in my minute by minute. Saw it, misinterpreted it, we move on. 

I thought the referee was appalling from start to finish in that game and I'm always really careful to limit my criticism of referees because it's not a job I could do and I'll always make a point of highlighting good performances when I see them. However at the age of 47 with a beard of grey upon my ugly face, I am old enough and wise enough to know that mistakes do happen. There's no conspiracy there despite what the social media team and other club officials at FC Porto might have you think. The irony there is of course is that for several seasons under Sergio Conçeicão they had a team which would spend 90 minutes trying to cheat and con the match officials and that was all above board in their eyes, but woe betide anyone making a genuine mistake on the pitch who happens to be a match official. I'm still aggrieved at Galeno getting Marcus Edwards sent off in the Clássico. I think I'll still be writing it in ten years time from now that I'm still pissed off. That's fucking cheating and feigning an injury to deliberately get an opponent sent off. An assist referee not having X Ray eyes to see through two players is forgiveable. It should also be noted that in the same game Batista saved a Suárez shot tipping it round the post which wasn't awarded as a corner so it's not like it was an isolated incident in that game and that Santa Clara didn't have an advantage previous to that. If Hjulmand didn't score, no one would be making a fuss and throwing their toys out of the pram, let's be fair.

Had Porto won against Famalicão with a goal awarded from an incorrectly awarded corner I'd have forgotten it by Tuesday. Shit happens. There's real problems in the world that need addressing and fixing and there must be a thousand wives in Portugal rolling their eyes at husbands spending hours pouring over a corner online as a litany of jobs they've promised to do around the house go undone. If everyone put the same effort into making the world a better place as they've done over a poxy corner imagine the world we could all live in. What it does suggest to me however is that FC Porto as a club are starting to really feel the pressure at the top and we're only in November. They enjoyed a great start to last season which everyone seems to overlook under Vítor Bruno only to fall off the edge of a cliff. Something their new mister Francesco Farioli knows all about having thrown away the Eredivisie title with Ajax last season having led in the final rounds of the season by ten points. They're stuttering and all this posturing is as old as time itself. It's misdirection, everyone looks at what the left hand is doing whilst what you should be paying attention to is the right hand. A 2-0 defeat away to Nottingham Forest who were on their third coach of campaign and languishing in the relegation places of the Premier League. A laboured win away to Moreirense where they fell behind and their winner came 3 minutes from time. A fortunate 2-1 win at home to Sporting Braga who had the better chances in the game and failed to convert. Fans criticise Rui Borges teams for sitting back in the Clássico's and Dérbi's and yet Farioli’s team completed 218 passes to Braga's 597. That was in the Dragão by the way. A 1-1 draw away to FC Utrecht from the Netherlands who sit 5th in the table, 12 points off PSV having lost 5 times this season already and who played out the last 25 minutes with ten men. Then finally a 1-0 away to Famalicão who like Utrecht also sit fifth, 12 points off Porto at the top. I think the reality is that it's not the corner that never was or the goal that shouldn't have been that saw Sporting come away with three points, it's the manner of the win that leaves the lions with their foot firmly up their arses and they're just waiting to implode like they did twelve months ago. The wheels are already coming off the rails. Time will tell. 

Unlike FC Porto and Benfica we thankfully avoided the club world cup but that doesn't mean we've been immune to injuries. I'm sure flights to and from Turin and then a flight to the Azores on top won't have helped the players alongside an already busy couple of weeks in terms of games but Saturday saw the lions repeating a very worrying trend from last season. Neither I'm guessing is having to play on what looked like a semi ploughed farmers field in the Azores. Pedro Gonçalves is now possibly out for 4 to 6 weeks. Fotis Ioannidis boarding the return flight on crutches and looking at a layoff of at least a month if reports are to be believed. I joked for week after week last season that the physio room had a one in one out rotation policy as if we were cursed and it's showing no signs of improvement which is ironic given that the club's president is a doctor. They join Debast, Nuno Santos and Bragança on the injured list. Fresneda had just returned from injury. We lost Diomande and Araújo earlier this season from injuries, Morita was missing for reasons given as ill health but as we learned post game Saturday he's struggling mentally. I wrote after the game there's clearly something up with him and suggested it would in part be because of the World Cup coming up in the summer and being out of contract, only he knows the real reason. You never know what's going on with players. Hjulmand clearly had gone off the boil for a period of time and then announced with his wife that she was expecting their first baby and most pregnancies fail in the first 12 weeks. You've got Pedro Gonçalves with young babies he's having to leave behind at an age where as a parent they've just become your entire world which is an incredible wrench. I'll readily admit we got away with one against Santa Clara and the result in Turin was mostly owed to the brilliance of Rui Silva on the night but it's not like that doesn't happen every season and for every team. I wonder what our season would have been like in the 2023/24 campaign had it not been for the winner which came in additional time against Vizela on the opening day? We clearly drew a lot of self belief from that game and we can too in theory from the same thing happening in the Azores. We overcame a raft of injuries last season and kept fighting to the end. We've a raft of talented youngsters knocking at the door eager for the opportunity to shine and you have to imagine many of them will get another opportunity to do that in our next game in the Taça. I'll start to worry when we stop getting away with it or fall back into habits of old where we go a goal behind and watch any belief we had just wash away. 

As soon as Pedro Gonçalves was injured fans were jumping on social media saying the club need to go into the market and get a replacement in the winter window. We couldn't do the deals we wanted in the summer so I have no faith they can get it done in the winter window. Having seen Luís Suárez and Kochorashvili fail to adjust from the Spanish Segunda to Portuguese top flight football it clearly shows the gap in quality between the two leagues and I wouldn't be returning for Yeremay any time soon especially having already paid over the odds for Suárez and Ioannidis. Surely at some point Nuno Santos returns to fitness and provides an option from the left. Flávio Gonçalves can certainly cut in from that side onto his right as we've seen time and time again playing for Sporting B and his low centre of gravity would potentially cause a lot of nuisance for defenders but I do appreciate it's a big step up but we've seen it work time and time again from Nuno Mendes through to João Simões at present. All you need is to be presented with a chance. 

Speaking of chances …

Once more other than Diomande failing his audition for Dancing on Ice not once but twice on Saturday night in the Azores, the biggest failure came in the final third with the forward line again guilty of spurning chances. It's too easy to say the sale of Gyökeres has affected the attacking output of the lions but when you consider this time last season we'd scored 56 goals in all competitions of which he'd scored 23 it's a given he was going to be missed. His tally alone is just over 50% of the 45 goals scored to date this campaign. That's a figure not to be sneezed at in fairness as they're still averaging 2.5 goals per game across all competitions, however that figure is down from 3.11 at the same stage albeit inflated by a string of large one off results. Importantly you still only get 3 points for a win whether you've won 6-1 or 1-0. 

Total attempts for the players where I have the exact data broken down into total attempts, blocked shots and shots on and off target are as follows;

296 attempts 

79 shots blocked (27%)

102 off target (34%)

115 on target (39%)

Or to look at it another way 61% of chances are not even on target or roughly 2 of every 3 attempts.

If you throw in the total attempts for the Paços de Ferreira game where the exact breakdown wasn't shown, that's a whopping 335 attempts on goal and 29 of those attempts in that game were either blocked or off target. 

As a team, again where the data is complete for games, they've record 55 Opta defined big chances across all competitions and missed 37 of those (67.27% which is 2 of every 3). Luis Suárez presented with 19 big chances missing 13 (68.42%) and Pedro Gonçalves 11 big chances missing 8 (72.73%). 

It can't all be pinned onto the failure of two players to take their biggest chances of course but had they done we could have killed games off a lot sooner in many cases. By this point last season we'd had 15 different goalscorers whereas this time it's dropped to 13 (both including an own goal for context). When your forwards aren't finding the net as consistently as the data suggests they should then you need to be helped by goals from players in other areas of the pitch. To be fair to both Suárez and Gonçalves, despite the total of number of big chances missed, they've been converting those chances which weren't defined as being big, so define irony. At the time of writing Gonçalves top scorer in all competitions with 9 goals and Suárez one behind on 8. Trincão has 5, Quenda and Ioannidis on 4 apiece. I'd not object to anyone that says Pote is stepping up this season given he's scored 4 more year on year. Trincão has 2 more. Suárez and Ioannidis have 13 combined compared to Gyökeres and Harder who had more than double on 28 combined. I mean to be fair the Swede on his own is 10 goals ahead of them. Would we be in the same predicament failing to put games to bed early if he was still here? I'm going to say no. 

If I was a Santa fan I'd have felt aggrieved at not been awarded a foul against Diomande and him not being shown a yellow especially given how quickly Wendel had been booked in the game. It's the oldest footballing cliché in the book that these things even themselves out and the Ivorian repaid them sixty seconds later. At the Alvalade last season they scored and sat back. Bremner should have scored for them and fired wide and I still argue that Araújo gets the ball in the camera angle from behind the goal but the decision stands and we have to deal with it. Thankfully he just misses the next game which he'd probably have been rested for anyway so no harm done but a nice segue all the same. 

Our next opponents after the international break, Atlético Clube Marinhense, were founded in 1923 and ply their trade in the Campeonato de Portugal. Home for them is the 8,378 capacity Estádio Municipal da Marinha Grande which I take to translate as being the Council stadium next to the big marina. I'm willing to admit I could be very wrong on that front and as we've ascertained in this post already I live in a town where a dog understands more Portuguese than I do. 

Like a lot of clubs I write about in Portugal it was first and foremost a sporting club like our fine institution. Football being the main sport but it has over the years participated in athletics, basketball, boxing, cycling, volleyball, rugby and some new ones which I've not mentioned ever before in these posts - fishing and pigeon racing. If you thought watching Santa Clara was bad every week imagine watching someone fishing or pigeon racing which I guess is a bit like watching cycling where they whizz past and you go was that it? Having just written that I have a vague memory that I did mention a pigeon called Gyökeres but unlike the Swede he wasn't flying for Sporting. 

In May of 1929 it became one of the founding members of the Leiria FA and they would dominate the early years of the Leiria District Championships winning an impressive six of the first nine titles. 

In their official history they note a game on December 28th, 1931 in which one of their players was handed a 90 day suspension for saying “I know what the referee needed.” Clearly nothing changes when Conrad Harder can get went off for saying Yeah close on a century later. 

May 13th, 1934 sees Atlético travel away to Lisboa for their first ever game against Sporting CP which the lions won 3-1. Four years later the club became a branch of Sporting and their club crest adopted the lion atop a shield. Not all fans were happy with the decision which led to the founding of SL Marinha. 

In the 1964/65 season when putting a man on the moon was still a pipe dream, the minnows from Marinha pulled off a wonder of their own when they went to the old Alvalade and beat a Sporting side who'd been crowned European Champions just four months earlier when they lifted the Cup Winners Cup. September 20th, 1964 the date no doubt etched into the clubs folklore as they recorded a 2-1 victory with goals from Marciano and Jorge Neto after Mario Lino had got his marching orders in the 65 minute. Can they pull off another cup shock 61 years on at the new José Alvalade against the reigning back to back league champions? I'll try not to tempt fate but I will say I won't be putting money on it happening. Unfortunately for Marinhense despite their shock victory in the round of 32, ties were 2 legged affairs back then and Sporting progressed 5-2 on aggregate. 

Not done with beating the lions in the sixties they did so again in 1993 at the inauguration of their current home when the lions were the guest team. When you're playing one of Os Três Grandes then I'm sure wins in friendly games count just as much. 

From the outside looking in it appears to be a football club with the right values looking to play a central role in the heart of the town. It's ethos is to grow the club hand in hand with the community and they want their success to be measured on this metric and not by the results on the pitch. More power to them in this crazy world in which we all find ourselves living in. 

They booked their place in the 4th round with a 7-6 win on penalties against Anadia after a goalless draw after extra time. Sounds like an opposition that would solve your headaches not give you them but oh well. It could have been very different had their keeper Franklim not kept out a penalty in additional time. I don't think he'll need to have spent much time watching Hjulmand's penalty technique if he comes up against the Dane from the spot kick in this game. I imagine fortunately for the skipper he'll be afforded rest as most of the first team were in the recent 5-1 win at home to Alverca. 

Their campaign got off to a winning start 1-0 away to GD Peniche. António Carlos Vaz Martins with the goal after 63 minutes. Ohoulo Framelin given his marching orders 12 minutes into additional time. The home side then missed a penalty a whopping 16 minutes into additional time. This followed up by 1-1 draws at home to GD Samora Correira and then away to CD Fátima. This reminds me of those cheap cassettes you could buy in petrol stations. Stop me when you recognise a name. Vinícíus Santos with the opening goal to Samora, Martins going from hero to villain as he was sent off after 21 minutes. They held onto 4 minutes until the end of the 90 before conceding the equaliser. Santos again on the score sheet with the opener against Fátima and they did at least finish with eleven men on the pitch, conceding in the second half. 

GD Samora Correira returned a fortnight later in the first round of the Taça de Portugal and after another 1-1 draw the home side progressed 3-1 on penalties. Vinícíus Santos again on the score sheet although this time Marinhense equalised.

Defeat on Matchday 4 as they went down at home 1-0 to Mortágua and I promise I'm not making these team names up. No such issues in the second round of the Taça as they dispatched Mosteirense 6-0 at home. Vinícíus Rayan with a hat-trick, Rui Henriques, Antonio Martina and Arter Undonque with the other goals. Back down to earth with a 3-1 loss away to Naval 1893 with Batalha scoring the consolation goal. 

A 1-0 home win against OS Marialvas in the league with a goal from Watche followed by the already mentioned win in the 3rd round of the Taça to set up the tie against the lions. Back down to earth AGAIN though thumped 4-0 away to Vitória de Sernache. A 0-0 at home to Electrico FC which is surely a club name lifted straight out of the pages of a Roy of the Rovers comic from the 1970s. Saturday they lost to a side whose name reads like it was dipped out a bin, 3-0 away to Benfica e Castelo Brandon. The loss leaves them 11th in Serie C on 9 points. 

Details on their squad is limited so apologies but I note that midfielder Gonçalo Batalha was part of the Sporting U23 setup until September 2022 when he signed for União de Leiria. 

It's probably worth pointing out that at the same stage of last season's competition which the lions went on to win, João Pereira made his debut as the mister beating Amarante 6-0. Marinhense without a goal in their last four games and perhaps more worryingly for them other than the 6-0 win at home to Mosteirense they've not managed to score more than a single goal in any of the fixtures they've scored in. 

Sporting CP Feminino 

Sporting Braga v Sporting CP 

Saturday November 8th, 2025

Starting XI 

Wellmann, Cancelinha, Barron, Cherry, Armengol, Hernandez-Grey, Perez, Arques, Bea, Encarnação and Neto

Substitutes Used 

Haugen, Bonseguendo, Santiago and Correia

After her unfortunate clanger in the last game against Torreense which gifted them the winning goal on the stroke of 90 minutes, goalkeeper Catarina Potra was dropped in favour of Wellmann for this fixture. 

The lionesses could have taken the lead on 6 minutes as Encarnação saw her shot from inside the D pushed onto the post. A minute later Armengol saw her goal bound shot from 17 yards tipped over the bar. They fell behind on 22 minutes when a Malu Schmidt shot from 10 yards looped up over Wellmann in goal and the balls trajectory carried on goalwards and Schmidt followed to slot home from a yard for the avoidance of doubt. The lionesses were awarded a penalty for handball which Encarnação converted on 43 minutes to draw them level. 

Full time 

Sporting Braga 1 Sporting CP 1 

Interestingly this is the third straight season this fixture has now finished all square at one apiece. Wellmann the Sporting player of the match with six saves in total. We're used to seeing the women having to play on second rate surfaces so ironic that the men should suffer that fate in the evening whilst the women got to play on a decent looking pitch so kudos to Braga even if I suspect it normally functions as one of the men's teams training pitches during the week. In truth Braga will have come away disappointed at the result given their XG of 4.21 to just 1.20. Bear in mind the XG for a penalty is always 0.79 to boot. Sporting stay second behind Benfica in the table but any hopes of a genuine title push are fast slipping away especially given the depth and quality of the neighbours squad. The gap five points between the Lisboa city rivals. 

Next up

Glasgow City (A)

Petershill Park, Glasgow

Wednesday November 12th, 2025

UEFA Women's Europa Cup

In the markets 

Sporting CP - TBC 

Draw - TBC

Atlético Clube Marinhense - TBC