Sporting CP v FK Bodø/Glimt

Sporting CP v FK Bodø/Glimt

Tuesday March 17th, 2026

Estádio José Alvalade 

Champions League Round of 16 Second Leg

The warm up

I'm sure most of you will be familiar with the concept of déjà vu, but just in case you're not, here's the dictionary definition;

déjà vu

noun

1 a: the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time

b: a feeling that one has seen or heard something before

2: something overly or unpleasantly familiar

It's March 12th as I write, the day after Sporting have been comprehensively beaten by Bodø/Glimt away in the Champions League 3-0 with little hope of turning the tie around in the second leg. A team as you will have seen who play in yellow and black trim. To steal a quote from a Mark Robson song - stop me if you think that you've heard this one before. Rewind the clock back 13 months to the day and we'd just been comprehensively beaten 3-0 in the Champions League by Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League the night before. A team who as you probably well know are famed for playing in yellow with black trim. Sporting it appears are in every inch as cyclical as fashion itself. Because of that I'm left trying to find the words for a second straight season ahead of a second leg that we could really do without having to play, me having to write a preview for or you from having to read it. I'll at least apologise for my part in advance. I'm sorry. Let us all slope off with our tail between our legs having at least avoided in all probability, an encounter with Arsenal who of course now boast a certain Victor Gyökeres amongst their ranks, a man who lets face it, knows a thing or two about finding the back of the nets at the José Alvalade. Sometimes we should be thankful for small mercies. Just in case you've managed to wipe it clean from your memory banks, the score from the Arsenal game last season was 1-5 and that's when Gyökeres was still one of ours. 

I'm extra thankful today for not being able to read Portuguese and after reading just the one post with the help of a translation, decided it best to stay off of social media. It was from a young woman claiming that the Sporting players should refund the travel costs for those who attended last night. For a brief moment I was tempted to tell her to pull her own head out of her arse and politely fuck off and stop being a moany self righteous little cunty bollock flaps but thought better of it. Not so much better of it that it's stopped me from having written it here but as I've not named her, she'll never know and what you don't know can't hurt you, or so they say. I'm not sure translate could do anything with cunty bollock flaps as a term either but there you go, first world problems and all that. 

Now the younger me last night would no doubt have been in the wallows of self pity that can follow defeat, thrown some things about, sworn a lot and got blitzed. The older me, the recovering alcoholic me, went round the block for a leisurely stroll, wrote up the full time report and shrugged it off knowing I've seen far worse performances by Sporting in Europe and have never read anyone suggesting that refunds should be made for travel after those defeats. Therefore I imagine she stole the notion from Manchester City players doing the same thing after they lost to Bodø and as such is yet to have an original thought of her own but she looked young enough to maybe come up with one, one day, just not today. She seems clearly unaware that some of our players earn annually what Haaland does in a week. It was a nice gesture on their part, sure, but they're regular Premier League Champions and have won the Champions League in a none too distant memory ago. Their defeat in Norway sent shockwaves around Europe. Sporting on the other hand once got as far as the Quarter Finals of the European Cup. Losing to Bodø shouldn't have come as a shock to you. Certain fractions of our fan base it appears need to wind their necks in. As Haaland himself would say - stay humble. Being Portuguese Champions wins you as much credit outside of Portugal as a petrol token would do if you slid it across the bar of your local pub. Now, getting pumped 4-1 at the José Alvalade by Lask a few seasons back, that felt truly humiliating. Whereas I went into last night's game fully expecting us to lose. Not in the manner we did it by, or by that scoreline, but I wasn't surprised. At 2-1 or 2-0 I'd have been confident of overturning it in the second leg. 3-0 just feels like a bridge too far. Last season in the return leg of the playoffs in Germany against BVB, the mister Rui Borges left Gyökeres and Trincão in Lisboa. We'll have to wait and see what side he puts out next week as to whether he's accepted his lot. We could come back. Atalanta did just that in the playoffs. Then they promptly got fucked 6-1 by Bayern at home Tuesday night and will have more than likely wished they didn't have their own remontada against BVB. Always be careful what you wish for. 

I don't really get what all the fuss is about. We were going to get knocked out at some point, we were never going to win the tournament so what difference is most likely bowing out in the round of 16 versus bowing out in the quarter finals? Yes Bayer Leverkusen were 1-0 up at home to Arsenal, but no one seriously thinks that they'll come away with North London having knocked the Premier League leaders out of Europe and which would you rather have and do be honest? A loss on aggregate to Bodø which no one other than us will remember because let's face it they've beaten Atlético, Manchester City and Inter Milan. Or would you rather get thumped over two legs by Arsenal? 

Years ago and I do mean a lot of years ago, when I still worked in newspapers, we used to play 5-a-side on AstroTurf on one of those little pitches boxed off by wooden sides. We would regularly face off against the same team who possessed one forward who would single handedly dismantle us. He didn't really need the other four players, he just did the damage himself, time and time again. We only ever beat them once, funnily enough on a night he wasn't playing. So thrilled were we, that our sports reporter, in a total abuse of power, published it as a match report which I must have a copy of somewhere. In said report sandwiched in between my Christian and surnames was my nickname at the time - Pele. Nothing to do with my on the field prowess but my ability at the time to score off of it on a frequent basis and I only mention it here because we lost to Bodø and I'm an old fucker now and need cheering up on both accounts. The point in me telling you all that was that he fully understood the nature of playing in his surroundings, whereas as hard as we tried and as good as we were against other teams, we just couldn't do it against them on that surface with him in the side and that was basically Sporting in a nutshell last night * 11. The only artificial turf I can claim to have ever played on came with sand, a lot of which is probably still living happily under scars on both my knees so I can't claim to have expert knowledge of how hard it is to play on whatever it is Bodø have. But I'd surmise that Bodø aren't the only club in Norway to have it installed and even if I'm wrong, their players have the benefit of playing on it at the very minimum of every other week. There's a reason you water actual turf before kick off and even then you can't pass a ball across it at the same rate some of our players managed to do at points last night. There's an art to it and we clearly didn't have it. I'd watched the day before highlights of a 3-0 win away to Arouca played on a pitch that looked like it had hosted a tractor ploughing competition on it sometime in the not too distant past. You'd have needed to hit the ball at the same pace as some of the passes that went astray last night just to have moved it ten yards. With the best will in the world footballers cannot adapt to a surface like that in the matter of minutes. It takes a lot of practice to get used to. Let's face facts, footballers are not renowned for their intelligence are they? There's a reason they don't let Goncalo Inácio do the post game interviews as a general rule of thumb, he's not the sharpest tool in the box.

You could trot out a multitude of excuses but the reality was we got beaten by the better team on the night. We weren't helped by the absence of Araújo or Alisson who've been two of the stand out stars that took us to the top eight finish in the first place. Neither, thinking about it nearly 24 hours after the event, were we helped by the loss of Reis who could have come in as left back and allowed Fresneda to play on the right. Football games aren't won after the event by ifs, buts and maybes. Had we a fit Ioannidis we may have played a 4-5-1, sat in a low block and pinged the ball at him to hold up and try build something off of him offensively. But we didn't and what's done is done. Everyone's an expert after the event. 

Everyone's also got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. My question after last night still remained what happens if Sporting had of landed a punch because I didn't come away convinced by Bodø. Next week is a test of character for both sides but especially for the lions. Kudos on your win in Norway gentlemen but let's see what you can do against a Sporting side quite literally on home turf with the snarling Maxi Araújo hunting you down. Let's see how you react to going a goal behind because I'm convinced had we got one back last night they'd have folded like a house of cards or faster than Superman on washing day. There's a big difference to be had between outrunning your opponents because you're closing them down non stop and outrunning your opponents because you've left them demoralised and chasing shadows. In the first half Guilherme was clear down the left, second half Trincão was away with a sea of yellow shirts desperately trying to get back and had he gotten his pass to Suárez away who knows what would have happened. Actually we can guess because we've seen what he does when he gets one on one but the point stands. Sporting had the better of the second half in the opening exchanges and yes that was because like Sporting so often do, they sat back and looked to counter, but you have to take your chances. This isn't AVS away on a Wednesday night. It might be little Bodø from Norway but it's still little Bodø in the Champions league. 

If the legs were reversed and we won 2-0 at the José Alvalade, I don't think for a single second anyone would give Bodø a card chance in hell of winning 3-0 at home and overturning it. Yet they've done their hard work now and if they qualify then best of British to them. If they face Arsenal then we'll well hope Victor Gyökeres punches them in the mouth for old times sake and then we'll finally have a good excuse to use. See, if we only still had Gyökeres up front we'd have been in the quarter finals.

Sporting B

Luistania Lourosa (A)

March 8th, 2026

Matchday 25

Starting XI 

Callai, Moreira, Muniz, Ramos, Dias, Cardoso, Felicíssimo, Justo, Couto, Nel and Mendonca 

Substitutes Used 

Anjos, Tanlongo, Lucas, Bafdili and Taibo

An Arsénio after 6 minutes was enough to condemn the lions to a third straight defeat.

Chaves (H)

March 13th, 2026

Matchday 26

Starting XI 

Callai, Couto, Ramos, Munoz, Moreira, Gonçalves, Lucas, Felicíssimo, Cardoso, Mendonca and Nel

Substitutes Used

Tanlongo, G.Silva, Justo, Anjos and Bafdili.

A Simões goal 15 minutes before time condemns the lions to a 1-0 defeat, their fourth straight. The loss leaves them for now at least fourth level on points with União de Leiria and Vizela but both have games in hand.

UEFA Youth League 

Real Madrid v Sporting CP

Wednesday March 18th, 2026

In the markets 

Sporting CP 4/7

Draw 15/4

FK Bodø/Glimt 15/4

To qualify 

Sporting CP 9/2

Bodø 1/7

Implied probability of Bodø qualifying - 87.5%