Famalicão 1 Sporting CP 1
Famalicão v Sporting CP
Sunday September 13th, 2026
Municipal 22 de Junho
Matchday 6
Referee: Luís Godhinho
The warm up
On Matchday 4 against Rio Ave we looked at the wealth of Rio Ave owner Evangelos Marinakis who is by all accounts a very wealthy man, with his family worth estimated at around $7 billion. The Famalicão owner Idan Ofer however by comparison is worth roughly four times that. Forbes estimate his wealth to be $34.6 billion. Interestingly the original source of both mans wealth lies in the shipping industry, albeit Ofer inherited his father’s fortune along with his brother in 2011. The late Sammy Ofer was once noted to be Israels richest man.
Ofer has a controlling interest of 85% in Famalicão alongside a 28% investment in Atletico de Madrid. He is said to be the fifth richest sports team owner in the world. He also owns a stake in the world renowned cycling team Movistar via an investment in Abarca Sports, the teams parent company and another investment in a sailing team.
Ofer has been named in both the Panama Papers leaks in 2016 and the Pandora Papers leaked in 2021, however there don't seem to be any specific allegations levelled at the Israeli. Those leaks all relate to the tax affairs of people and their various companies, large suaves of which are held offshore in tax havens. It should be noted that tax avoidance and tax evasion are two very different things with only one of them being illegal. Unlike his Greek counterpart at Rio Ave, no one is pointing the finger at Ofer to the best of my knowledge in connection with drug trafficking and murder. Not that any allegations against Mr Mariniakis have ever proven to be true.
Famalicão's 2024/25 financial results show the SAD in good health. Their revenues for the financial year were €23.6m. Matchday revenue accounted for just 1% of that with €0.3m generated. Broadcasting brought in €4.9m, Advertising €0.8m, other revenue €2.5m and their biggest source of revenue, transfers at €15.1m. Minus operating costs of €23.4m of which €15.5m was made up of salaries, it left them with a net profit of €300,000. Which may not sound like much, but it was in the black compared to most clubs who’d find themselves in the red. That gave them the seventh highest revenue in Portuguese football for that period.
Matchday revenues will include regular match tickets and season tickets. Hospitality, business seats, catering and other stadium-related income are usually excluded. Sporting’s for the same accounting period was €16.1m.
Broadcasting revenues will include domestic and international TV rights, central league distributions and prize money. Performance-based payments vary by season. Sporting’s for the same accounting period was €80.1m.
Advertising revenues will include sponsorships, advertising agreements, and business seats. Merchandising, retail sales and other commercial income are usually excluded. Sporting’s for the same accounting period was €27.2m.
Salaries is pretty self explanatory but it’s not just player wages. They include salaries, wages, bonuses, and social security costs for first-team players, staff, and all other employees of the club. Sporting’s wage bill was €87.7m.
The €15.1m accounted for in transfer revenue includes income from the sale or loan of player registrations. Sell-on fees, and solidarity payments are usually included as well. It doesn’t take an accounting genius with their wage bill versus other income to work out that without players sales annually the club would be in big trouble.
When we looked into Marinakis' ownership at Rio Ave there seemed an obvious reason for the purchase of the club and how it fitted into his multi club ownership model. That poses the question of why Ofer chose to become the majority shareholder and defacto owner of Famalicão? That's not meant as a sleight on them by the way but at first it's not an obvious purchase in the same scale of things. The sage wisdom is that buying a football club fan soon turn a billionaire into a millionaire. Football clubs, especially the biggest ones are expensive things to run. For all the billions that flow into the Premier League the vast majority of clubs continue to lose money season on season. We've already highlighted in the figures above that had Famalicão not sold players in the 2024/25 accounting period they'd have had a significant financial black hole open up. Not Premier League level admittedly but everything is relative. Boavista went to the wall owing a pittance of the reported debt of £1.4 billion that Chelsea have sat around their necks. So making a profit, even a small one of €300,000 is hugely significant and means they've a better chance at maintaining self sufficiency which should be the long term goal of any football club.
As I write we're two games into the new season and from certain sections of our fanbase we're already seeing criticism of the transfer policy over the summer. I wish I had the power to watch someone working in their job for three hours and know exactly what that meant for the remainder of their career with a company because that is what in effect some fans are calling. There's criticism of the fee taken for Trincão but there appears no thought process behind why the offer was accepted or how the value was come to. Let's take the transfer of Viktor Gyökeres twelve months earlier to Arsenal. Some argue he served his purpose in helping them over the line to winning the title. In the main however his transfer wasn't considered to be a success. Pundits don't take into account a lack of pre season. Messi had the same issue when he joined PSG and I'm not comparing the two ability wise, but it plays a huge factor at the top level. Long story short however, his lack of success will impact the future transfers of other players at Portuguese clubs. The premium has been watered done because it's harder to justify why you want €50m for your player. There was no competition for the players signature to boost the price. He didn't even play a full 45 minutes in the World Cup Finals for Portugal and rarely starts for his national team if featuring at all game to game. Throw in real world factors like the Saudi Arabian economy taking a huge hit from US and Israeli actions against Iran. They're losing billions of dollars of oil money because of it. Sporting aren't in a financial position to match the wages on offer which I believe will be €12m annually. If the player expresses a desire to leave and you get an offer of €40m and there's no other offer on the table do you try make him stay? It's hardly ideal is it?
Diomande does feel like we've dropped a bollock with the price but again there was no competition for his signature. Long term the club has to be self sufficient. Unlike the Premier League we don't have the luxury of four or five guaranteed Champions League places. You're always selling to balance the books, it's a fact or Portuguese football that won't change even with billionaire owners now involved. We've seen what happens when you stop being able to sell players for top dollar and have changed your model into making significant investments in signings that don't work out. It's called FC Porto who were deadly close to the financial wall a few seasons back and are still loaded with debts robbing Peter to pay Paul. They've barely made any investments into their playing squad over the summer. We've spent a 9 figure sum in terms of outlay but we've also future proofed ourself by getting the top earners off the wage bill. Well some of them at least. I imagine by the time you read this Pedro Gonçalves will have made his protracted move to Saudi Arabia. Because the stark reality is when you keep a title winning squad together you have to sell the likes of Mateus Fernandes for €10m to be able to do it. He's now made moves totalling around £140m. If and when we don't make the Champions League, and it will happen at some point, we can't be carrying an even larger wage bill. The fans think short term, the president even if it's unpopular has to think long term.
Somewhere we got off the topic of why Idan Ofer brought Famalicão so let's try steer that ship back on course. Someone's net worth doesn't equate to cash in the bank. You can be asset rich, cash poor. So just because you're asset rich doesn't mean you'd want to use those assets to finance the purchase of a huge football club in Europe. €5 billion in property is going to bring you a better dividend that €5 billion on a football team. Ofer might be both asset rich and cash rich but still you don't leave the type of money needed to buy a larger football club sitting in a rainy day account. But, you might have the type of money to buy a Famalicão in your rainy day fund. If your ultimate aim is to maybe buy one of the largest European football clubs then it helps to have had experience of running a team, even if it's a middling size Portuguese one. Yes he holds an investment in Atlético de Madrid but one assumes that is merely an investment stake meaning that he has little to no say in the day to day running of the La Liga side. Interestingly the Famalicão SAD will by virtue of Portuguese law have a bigger say with their % holding of the club that Ofer will have with his investment in Atlético de Madrid. Define irony.
Unlike with Marinakis and his investments, because Ofer doesn't own Atlético de Madrid he can't use Famalicão as an instrument to further his own gains by moving players between his own clubs. Just as a side note - Famalicão have this summer sold their best player to Marinakis in the form of Gustavo Sá moving to Nottingham Forest for €20m who promptly loaned him to Olympiacos for a season. Atlético of course did go to the Portuguese market for a midfielder in signing Morten Hjulmand.
The real reason does appear to be similar to that of Marinakis though and that's to make a financial profit on player trading. All roads in Portuguese football eventually converge to just one, that of Super Agent Jorge Mendes. It transpires he played a pivotal role in Ofer making his offer and subsequent purchase of Famalicão. Who represented Gustavo Sá on his transfer to Nottingham Forest? Polaris Sports. Who are they owned by? Ding, Ding, Ding what does he win Johnny? That's not me being sexist by the way, that's a line stolen from Jim Carey in Liar Liar. I'm assuming he stole it from the Price is Right but that's all by the by.
I'm going to have to tread very carefully with my insinuations here and try not to cause any offense. We touched on this in the Rio Ave preview, there's a major benefit to owning a Portuguese football club which is it's links to it's former colonies. As a reparation for its past misdemeanours which cannot be condemned, their citizens are entitled to take advantage of easier labour laws. In short if you're a footballer from Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau or Cape Verde then it's far easier for you to come to Portugal and play. This is now called player trading and thankfully unlike the other historical type of trading, players do at least benefit financially. You know what I'm getting at. When you look at the transfers into Portugal from Brazilian clubs, the total numbers of players is staggering. What's more staggering however is the fact that the vast majority, especially to smaller Portuguese clubs, are all done on free transfers. When I say vast majority I really mean that, like every single one of them. Only the big boys end up spending some sort of fee. All the time clubs are just looking for those one or two that will hopefully kick on and bring with them a large profit when they're sold onto a bigger club on the continent. As I say at least for the players they're getting paid in this arrangement unlike in the days when they had no say in their future employment status. The bigger the club they sign for eventually then the bigger the wage, signing off fee, chance of promotional deals et al. For the agents they take their percentage of players wages, deals and claim agents commission on the sales. For the clubs they get the finance on the club's books and if you're like the Glazer family at Manchester United, you pay yourselves a large dividend of the the financial profits every season. So if you can take your relationship with Jorge Mendes, attract promising youngsters to come and play for you in Portugal with the easier labour laws, flip them for a nice fee, then everyone's a winner and you don't need a multitude of clubs to end up financially better off than before. The added benefit for Marinakis is that he has the clubs to move players between if they don't work out or maybe need to gain more experience. Then again Ofer has Jorge Mendes and his extended tentacles around world football. He'll find somewhere to park his clients if needs be. Just ask Cristiano Ronaldo when he wanted to leave Manchester United. He may not have found Champions League football in his next move but he did find the type of money annually that an entire club gets from TV revenues from playing in it.
Whilst Ofer may have inherited the large bulk of his fortune he's still a business man in now own rights and coupled with the fact that it's highly unlikely that he grew up as a Famalicão fan in Israel, we'll chalk his ownership up as being one of long term financial beneift. Be that through player trading or investment in the clubs infrastructure and being able to sell it on at a later stage. Clubs have to diversify now to survive. Football grounds have to be used in a way that brings a return 365 days a year. Tottenham as an example have spent hugely in the summer window because of lucrative concerts featuring the likes of Beyonce. They have an F1 go kart track under the stadium, they play host to NFL games. It's a money making operation used to fund the business part of the football operation. It's incredibly successful and maybe a little too successful when compared to the footballing side the past two seasons where they've finished 17th in the Premier League.
So for Ofer and Famalicão can surrounding land be developed into retail space or hotels or flats on top of potentially doing something with the ground? Clearly they're not going to build a new billion pound stadium but there does seem to be some sort of plans afoot long term. I don't think they'll end up the poor relatives under his ownership in the same manner that Rio Ave week to be under Marinakis in his multi club operation. Like Famalicão fans we'll have to see what he does with them long term. Will he up his investments in Atlético de Madrid given the chance?
What does the immediate future hold for Famalicão? The loss of Sá and Ba feels critical to me in how their fortunes will fair over the coming season. I think it's pretty telling that at the time of writing they've banked the money and only brought in free transfers and loan signings during the summer. That could change of course before the end of the transfer window but even if they open the purse strings you don't imagine they're going to spring them wide open. How do you therefore replace your captain and what one assumes was their best central defender? He's yet to recover from injury to make his Sporting debut (this is pre-Alverca for added context) but I watched their calamitous defending on Matchday 2 which cost them the game against Marítimo. Look thest things can happen, we saw them against Estrela on Matchday 1 with Sporting. You couldn't replicate both of Marítimos goals if you tried. Sometimes shit happens and when it does it happens against your team. It is what it is. (Post Alverca update - Ba made his full debut and in an ironic twise of fate the Alverca goalkeeper ended up scoring an own goal. It's clearly going to be one of those seasons for these types of errors you simply cannot legislate for).
Last season was a phenomenal one for Famalicão right up until the point that Sporting lost to Torreense and cost them a place in Europe. They finished fifth with a record of played 34, won 15, drawn 11, losing 8. GF 42, GA 29. Fourth best home record, played 17, won 9, drawn 4, lost 4. GF 27, GA 12. Only Porto and Sporting conceded fewer goals at home than them. Away - fifth best record, played 17, won 6, drawn 7, losing 4. GF 15, GA 17. Whilst scoring goals on the road may have been more of an issue they still had the fourth best defensive record.
Of the 42 goals scored 28 were from open play, 11 set pieces, 1 Free kick, 1 penalty, 1 own goal. xG 45.8. Top scorers were Sorriso and the now departed De Haas with 5 apiece. Four players with 4, three with 3 and the remaining spread between five men. So whilst they missed an out and out focal point in attack, they did at least manage to spread their goals around. Gil Dias with the most assists on 7. They averaged 1.2 goals per game, conceding 0.9. Much of their success was predicated on that strong defensive backline which kept 17 clean sheets. Only Porto kept more and when you're not conceding every other game then you've always got a huge platform to build upon.
Last season's success owed much to the mister Hugo Oliveira. Regular readers may remember he was poached by Sporting's pre-season opponents RC Strasbourg who we then proceeded to thump 7-0 in his first game as coach. Carlos Carvahal’s wife was clearly fed up of him having his feet under the table and has sent him back out to work to get him out of her hair. Braga clearly had nothing for him and so he's the new mister of Famalicão. I had known that, completely forgot about it and was surprised for a second time. I imagine by the time this game roles around I'd have forgotten a second time. Don't get old peoples. It should be noted that the French side reportedly paid €4m for the services of Oliveira to add to the Sá and Ba money. In turn it's worth mentioning the loss of De Haas who came to the end of his contract and was a key figure in their success last season. All of them key factors in the clubs success in reaching fifth. It seems replicating that again will not be an easy task for them this season.
Carvahal was of course once the mister of Sporting between November 2009 and June 2010 and we gave him his first break as a coach. Since then his journey has taken him to Turkey, Wales, UAE, Spain, Greece with returns to his native Portugal in-between. He'd been without work since leaving Braga in May 2025. He'll be 61 years young in December.
Back to last season they had the third highest total big chances missed with 55 and the fewest penalties awarded with just 1 across their 34 games. At the other end of the pitch they conceded a total of 7 penalties of which 6 were converted. Second highest average fouls per game on 15.8 behind only Casa Pia. 86 bookings chalked up alongside 2 sendings off.
Summer Transfer Window
Outgoing
Justin De Haas - Valencia Free (out of contract)
Rafa Soares - Released
Otar Mamageishvili to Wolfsberger AC (loan)
Rochinha - Casa Pia (Free)
Simon Elisor - Universitatea Craiova (Free)
Ibrahima Ba - €18m
Gustavo Sá - Nottingham Forest £17m
Otso Liimatta - Sirius £516,000
Gonçalo Pastor - Unionistas de Salamanca (Loan)
Incoming
Leny Meyer - VfB Stuttgart II (Free)
Finn van Breeman - Basel (Free)
Tamás Szucs - Debrecen - (Free)
Paulo Moreira - Free agent
Georgios Koutias - Lugano - €2.5m
Mathis Jangeal - PSG (Free)
Vojin Serafirmovic - Cukaricki (Free)
Patricio Salas - CF América (Loan)
Alves Lopes Gustavo Ferreira - Benfica (Free)
Famalicão season to date
Matchday 1 – Estoril (A) 1-1
It was the Famalicenses who had the honour of scoring the
first goal in the Portuguese top flight as they kicked off their campaign on
Matchday 1 away to Estoril. 31 minutes on the clock as Koutsias bundled home
from a yard off the goal line. The goal was cleared after a VAR check confirmed
the defender in front was playing him onside. Yanis Begraoui bundled home the
equaliser on 71 for a share of the points.
Total attempts 14 - 6
Shots on target 3 - 3
Opta Big Chances 1 - 3
Big chances missed 0 - 2
Matchday 2 - Marítimo (H) 1-2 L
Famalicão were looking for their first win of the new season after drawing 1-1 with Estoril. The islanders were looking to add to their opening round win against Casa Pia.
An Arando corner near side resulted in an exquisitely guided header into the bottom left hand corner by van Breeman from 8 yards to give the home side the lead.The visitors equalised when goalkeeper Carevic miscontrolled the ball in the box on 20 minutes. Butzke stole the ball but could only fire against the right hand post from 8 yards. Incredibly the ball cannoned back out straight to Bouzaidi who fired it home via a touch off a defender from 18 yards to equalise for 1-1. Fernandes should have put Marítimo 2-1 ahead but headed over from 6 yards. The sides went in level at half time. On 53' a Sorriso header from point blank range was well saved by Pastor. On 61' a fine curled effort from the corner of the left hand side of the 18 yard box from Sorisso was again kept out by Pastor to keep the visitors in the game. It was another defensive howler which led to the winner three minutes past the end of the 90. Realpe panics and hits his pass inside the area with too much pace to fellow defender van Breeman and the ball cannoned back to Boakye who stabbed it home from the edge of the far side of the six yard box. I can think of three Famalicão players whose shoes I wouldn't have wanted to have been in at training Monday morning.
xG 0.59 - 1.61
Total attempts 14 - 9
Shots on target 4 - 4
Big chances 1 - 5
Big chances missed 1 - 3
Matchday 3 - Santa Clara (A) 1-0 L
The home side came close to breaking the deadlock after 11 minutes. A long throw launched from the near side caused confusion at the back and Borges effort struck the post before Paciência saw his follow up effort blocked. On 18' Koutsias somehow contrived to put his header from 2 yards past the post of Lucas França. Almost as comical as some of Fama's defending last week. On 21' Dias lost possession far to easy and the resulting cross into the Fama box was eventually forced home by Paciência for 1-0 continuing his rich form in front of goal. Might be worth a punt in the top scorer competition, that is if Santa Clara can keep hold of him until May. Neither side really threatened after that in terms of solid chances and the islanders took all 3 points. Fama now with 1 point from a possible 9.
xG 1.36 - 1.05
Total attempts 12 - 9
Shots on target 2 - 3
Big chances 2 - 1
Big chances missed 1 - 1
Matchday 4 - Gil Vicente (H) 0-0 D
I would argue the first decent chance came on 38' when Marcos Peña's well struck effort from 24 yards was saved by Lucão in the visitors goal. On '77 Touré's effort from 19 yards probably caused some mild panic in the home defence as it deflected off a defender en route to goal and out for a corner. Four minutes later Mohamed Kaba could only steer his header wide of the Famalicão goal from 8 yards. Carvahal looked pleased enough after the full time whistle with a point. Not sure either set of fans would have been thrilled to have wasted 90 minutes of their lives that they'll never get back. Very definition of a bore draw.
xG 0.23 to 0.28
Total Attempts 7 - 1
Shots on target 1 - 1
Big Chances 0 - 0
Matchday 5 - Estrela (A) 2-2 D
After failing to create a single big chance last time out Fama would take both of theirs created on the road Saturday afternoon. Just 1'17 on the clock when they took the lead as Koutsias got on the end of de Amorim's through ball to knock it past Linck from 7 yards into the bottom left hand corner. They led 1-0 at half time. 57' on the clock when time seemed to slow down as Antonetti made it 1-1 with an outstretched boot which somehow guided the ball past Carevic from 8 yards into the bottom left hand corner. Poor from the Fama keeper who'll feel he should have done better given the pace and the angle. 68' Antonetti saw his effort from 17 yards centrally cannon back off the right hand post straight to his team mate Scholze who with Carevic on the ground just had to steer it in the right direction from 7 yards. Estrela now 2-1 ahead. 78' A trip by Robinho on the edge of his own box resulted in a penalty. Koutsias cool as a cucumber to blast home into the bottom left to make it 2-2.
xG 0.94 - 1.80
Total Attempts 14 - 14
Shots on target 4 - 4
Big chances 1 - 2
Big Chances Missed 0 - 0
In the markets
Famalicão 9/2
Draw 14/5
Sporting CP 14/25
Team news
Starting XI
Silva, Fresneda, Debast, Inácio, Araújo, Altimira, Doumbia, Gonçalves, Geny, Guilherme and Suárez
Substitutes
Pereira, Quaresma, Vagiannidis, Dias, Felicíssimo, Andersen, Lima, Irankunda, Derry, Ioannidis, Nel and Zalazar.
Ba misses the chance to play against his former employers as he continues his race for full fitness following his summer transfer. João Simões continues to move closer to a return. Nuno Santos set to be out for at least another month. Three changes to the starting XI from the win against Galatasaray in the Champions League midweek. Vagiannidis and Quaresma are replaced by Fresneda and Debast. Up front Zalazar swaps with Gonçalves.
Famalicão starting XI
25 Carević, 28 Bondo, 15 Rofino, 4 van Breemen, 17 Pinheiro, 8 Peña, 14 De Amorim, 7 Sorriso, 23 Dias, 21 Szucs and 70 Koutsias
Substitutes
Zlobin, Garcia, Realpe, Columbo, Meyer, Jangéal, Moreira, Aranda, Salas, Beney and Abubakar
Three changes from the 2-2 draw against Estrela away. Rofino, Szucs and Dias in for Realpe, Beney and Moreira.
First half
The lions in gold and black, Famalicão in their traditional white and dark blue. The home side kick us off. Sporting attack left to right. Luís Godhinho the match official in charge of tonight's game.
1 Early danger for Sporting on the edge of the box as the home side straight on the attack, well dealt with and the lions able to build out from the back
2 Suárez wins a corner near side. All too easy for Carević who comes to claim
3 There certainly doesn't look like there's a spare seat in the house on the far side of the ground at least. This another Portuguese stadium with only two stands
4 Debast goes long looking for Suárez, Famalicão clear for a throw in
5 Koutsias goes to ground too easily and Altimira tells him in no uncertain terms to get up close to the half way line
6 Araújo taken down on the edge of the box. Guilherme with good work initially out wide
7 Godhinho indicates VAR check complete and waves his hands to indicate no penalty. If it's not a penalty then surely you've got to book Araújo? The defender doesn't appear to touch the ball but clearly makes contact with the Uruguyan. I'm perplexed
10 Having said there's no spare seats either a lot of people got up on the far left hand side or there's one block that largely didn't sell. That being said there's still far more fans here than in most grounds
11 Guilherme tries a shot from a narrow angle far side put out for a corner by Carević
12 Second corner won in quick succession as Inácio's header comes off the head of van Breemen
15 Notable that Guilherme has popped up on both wings, though predominantly on the left and that Gonçalves has been operating on the right
18 Altimira the latest to go long, sends Fresneda off for a sprint down the right but far too much pace on the ball
18 Mistake by Fresneda in the centre, he does however recover to concede a corner near side
21 Suárez rather comically gets smashed in the face by the ball as a Famalicão player behind stuck his leg out and his contact sent it up and back into the Colombians chops. Shouldn't laugh
23 Sportinguista's bouncing in the far corner to whatever it is they sing to the tune of Hitler's only got one ball.
24 GOAL Famalicão 0 Sporting CP 1. My screen froze at the wrong time there and came alive to see Gonçalves score from ten yards. Suárez won the flick on, on the edge of the area to set the youngster free. He charged between two defenders before getting the shot away.
25 Goal disallowed. Either for a handball initially from Suárez or Gonçalves or a suspicion of both. Whatever Godhinho said in Portuguese.
32 Gonçalves has come out to the left hand side with Guilherme now operating in the centre
33 Replay of Godhinho pointing first at his arm and then at Suárez. That cleared that one up at least
37 Poor from Debast looking for Araújo on the switch sends it out for a throw in
37 Araújo 8 yards from the goal line but far left of the area sees his low effort easily stopped by Carević
39 Corner conceded far side by Inácio
40 Big save from Rui Silva to keep out a Sorriso header from 6 yards. Phenomenal reactions saving to his left, that effort was travelling at some pace
Plus two shown
+1 Dias booked initially for a shirt pull on Gonçalves. He then leaves a knee in on the youngster and pushes him in the throat. He's really fortunate not to be sent off there
+2 Silva tips a cross over the bar taking no chances. Corner far side
+2 Handbags between Araújo and Pinheiro. Godhinho suggests the Famalicão player vacates the area
Half time
Famalicão 0 Sporting CP 0
Whatever the modern equivalent of straight to DVD is, that was it. The lions with a penalty shout not given in the opening ten minutes when Araújo was brought down, Gonçalves goal was then disallowed. It took Famalicão 40 minutes to even register their first attempt of the half though in fairness to them it did transpire to be the best effort from either side. xG 0.24 to 0.16 paints a picture of how exciting the half was and how good Famalicão's one chance was compared to the lions three. Altimira put one high over the stand midway through the half that I assumed was an over hit pass so there you go.
As you'd expect from a Carlos Carvahal side they've been well set up and looking to try to counter attack when they get the chance. Sporting certainly have plenty of guns on the bench but they need some bullets in the chamber to actually fire. Guilherme has been the brightest spark in an attacking sense down the left flank with support from Araújo and Doumbia. We've seen very little on the right flank which is unusual for a Sporting side. Clearly they think they'll get more joy from the opposite flank. Camera angle is really low and flat so in theory we should at least see more of the game in the second half.
Second Half
The lions get us back underway
➡️⬅️ Dias for Beney. No surprise given he really should have been sent off before half time that his coach has pulled him
47 de Amorim fouls Altimira. Free kick 27 yards out
48 Carević with a flying save to keep Geny's free kick out
49 Suárez header goes over from 4 yards. The defender in front got the first touch and it ricochets off the Colombian behind and out of play
51 Wonderful run from Guilherme into the box past two defenders but he just can't keep control at the last moment and toe pokes at full stretch straight at the keeper from ten yards. That would have been some goal. Definitely the lions best chances of the match
52 Famalicão look to counter on the break, Fresneda and Silva combine to mop up the danger
55 Famalicão corner near side straight into the hands of Silva
57 Gonçalves fires low from 12 yards well saved by Carević down low. The lions xG already improved by 0.86 in the opening 12 minutes of the half as they ramp up the pressure
59 Beney fires straight at Silva from 18 yards who gets his body behind the ball and scoops it up
59 ⬅️➡️ Koutsias for Abubakar. Famalicão choosing to take off their top scorer
61 Zalazar is readied on the sides for the lions
62 Ioannidis just walking into view as well. Double substitution incoming
62 Abubakar sends Debast flying. Free kick awarded which finally allows Sporting to make their changes.
63 ⬅️ ➡️ Guilherme for Zalazar and Gonçalves for Ioannidis
64 Beney flicks the ball over the head of Araújo who responded with a charge into the Famalicão player under the nose of the linesman and bizarrely no free kick awarded. I mean that was as blatant a foul as you will see all season long
65 Abubakar with his second foul in three minutes since coming on knocks Fresneda to the floor
66 Ioannidis wins a corner far side
67 Rofino clears from Suárez inside the box. Good defending
68 Ricardo Mangas scored for Monza earlier in a turn up for the books. That's how interesting this game is. Oh also Mateus Reis was sent off for CSKA for a challenge in the corner. Not like him to be up to no good in that area of the pitch
68 Cross from the right smacks the side of Suárez’s head and out for a goal kick
70 Shake of the head from Borges on the bench, large sigh from me. This is painful
72 Booking for Geny for a foul on Sorriso. Not sure Godhinho got that one right. Didn't look any more than an accidental collision of two players who both took each other down
73 Silas about to come on
73 Geny shot from the D blocked after good work from Araújo to pick him out
74 Geny fires a shot from 24 yards, again well saved. Doumbia offside in the second play
74 ➡️⬅️ Geny for Irankunda and Doumbia for Andersen
75 Famalicão with just the one effort in each half but as it stands are set to add another point to their tally. The lions guilty of missing three Opta defined big chances
77 Penalty Sporting. Carvahal is fuming. Ioannidis brought down. Irankunda had the ball around the penalty spot, he chose not to shoot but pulled it back to the Greek who was then fouled
78 I think they're checking a foul in the buildup by Suárez
79 Godhinho is walking over to book Carvahal on the sidelines
79 Suarez wipes the sweat from his face with his shirt. There was a booking to a Famalicão player I'll clear that one up in a minute. Presumably VAR check is complete and the penalty stands
80 GOAL Famalicão 0 Sporting CP 1. Suárez buries the ball into the bottom left hand corner. The defender looks like he's in tears. It was Bondo who fouled Ioannidis and picked up the booking. Suárez definitely looked like he fouled Peña in the lead up to the goal.
82 ⬅️➡️ Peña and Sorriso off for Aranda and Salas
84 Free kick Famalicão 27 yards from goal. Aranda beats the wall and sees it smash against the left hand post and out for a goal kick. I'm going to say Silva had it covered however had it been four inches to the right
85 Suárez shoves Aranda and is shown the yellow card.
86 Famalicão throwing everything forward other than Carević and the kitchen sink
87 Beney shown a straight red as he kicks out at Araújo behind. The Uruguayan has done him like a kipper there clutching his knee but stupid all the same to have done it in the first place
89 Araújo with a horrible slice thankfully goes out for a throw in
89 Irankunda booked for a foul on Bondo in the play before
Plus five shown
90 GOAL Famalicão 1 Sporting CP 1. Abubakar with the initial header from 6 yards comes off the foot of Inácio and leaves Silva scrambling and unable to get to the ball which creeps in at the far post. Inácio credited with his second own goal of the week
+2 Suárez fires straight at the keeper from 8 yards straight from the restart
+3 Ioannidis header wide from 16 yards
+4 Suárez can only get the faintest of touches on the ball six yards out. Huge let off for Famalicão
+5 Irankunda picks out Ioannidis who can only put his header wide from 8 yards
Full time
Famalicão 1 Sporting CP 1
Booking to Fresneda after the final whistle who was remonstrating with Godinho
The final word
So for the second time this season the lions throw two points away in disappointing fashion. I like Luis Godhino as a referee but some of his decisions tonight were bizarre and this game is going to end up dominating the headlines of the Portuguese press tonight and tomorrow. In a country obsessed by refereeing decisions he's not helped his fellow colleagues out tonight.
You've got the decision not to award a penalty after six minutes despite their being contact on Araújo and not with the ball. He books Dias for the pull back on Gonçalves who then makes contact with the youngster with his knee and then, with his hand on his throat, pushes the youngster over and that's with both the linesman and Godhinho inches away from the incident. In fact the linesman is in-between the two and couldn't have been closer if he tried. So Famalicão should have played the second half with ten men. Suárez appears to foul Peña on the halfway line in the buildup to what ends in the penalty which wasn't called but in fairness Godhinho let most things go right until the last ten minutes to allow the game to flow. The Beney sending off was soft but probably the right decision by the letter of the law. Just don't stick your leg up, but that being said I can't really excuse Araújo for the way he goes down clutching his knee. So maybe it was karma that minutes later Inácio scores via second own goal of the week. I'm going to keep writing it, if you're in your seventh season as a centre back in Portugal, if you were as good as some people claimed then you'd have been snapped up a long time ago.
Throwing away four points from your opening six games already feels like curtains for the lions if they did harbour any serious ambitions of mounting a title push. They're going to need wins against both Porto and Benfica possibly home and away and on current form they look way off being able to achieve that target. It's a side suffering growing pains which is to be expected and especially given the age of the majority of the squad. This league however is unforgiving and dropping four points in Portugal is more like dropping ten. Yes Benfica have dropped two against Académico on the opening day of the season but Porto are six from six albeit you might fancy that Benfica could beat them on current form. Really you need them to draw and Sporting to get their fingers out their arses and see a game over the line.
Refereeing question marks aside the draw probably felt like a fair result in the end. I can't sit and claim that I thought we deserved all three points. Had it finished 0-0 with none of the controversy I think I'd have said it was a fair result and that neither side was clinical enough in front of goal. As I say though the number of talking points will dominate all the headlines and be a reason to keep off social media for the next seven days until we play Arouca. Or maybe it's six, I've not looked to see when the next fixture is to be played.
Famalicão set up to frustrate Sporting and they did their job pretty much to perfection. The lions maybe a little leggy from having to play Champions League football whereas Famalicão have had at least seven days rest. Again I'd have to check when they played Estrela but whether it's seven or eight days since they last played it's probably no surprise they had that extra couple of percent in the last five minutes of the game. Yet the lions should still have been able to see the game out. Long gone are the days where you'd have an Adrien Silva and João Mario who'd have played keep ball and seen the clock out. Maybe someone should show them some video footage of how it's done.
I wrote at half time Sporting have plenty of guns but do they have any bullets and the answer was no. Well maybe they did but they were firing blanks. Geny's free kick was well saved and his effort a minute before being substituted tested the keeper again but really other than that for all their attacking talent they failed to deliver once more. Suárez is going to be serving a one match ban by mid October the way he keeps picking up bookings. At least for now anyways Ioannidis is match fit, but you could do without it all the same given he is in a rich vein of form of scoring goals even if we have drawn twice. Normally we struggle against a low block but in fairness you can't accuse Famalicão of playing one, they were just well organised. We know that Carvahal is a good coach so it's not any surprise that he can set a team up well and whilst they've not won this season, it's a side stripped of their best two players and let's not forget they finished fifth last time out and will no doubt start to pick up wins soon enough. You imagine a point tonight will do their confidence the world of good. Not sure it will do much for ours though in fairness.
The real issue tonight is that no one really stepped up. It felt like everyone averages out to about a six out of ten performance and that's not good enough. You've got moments of good play but not enough consistency from anyone to pick out stand out performances which makes trying to pick four for man of the match as hard as it's been with seven games played in all competitions. Let's go Altimira first vote. He is the Spanish Morita. Never really stands out but does the simple things well and it feels like a night where I'm picking who did least wrong over the course of the 90 minutes. That's not a good starting point is it? Vote two goes to Suárez who at least scores even if you might suggest that the lions were fortunate to be awarded the penalty in the first place. He was the man in the right place even if he didn't have the finishing to go with it and yes I'm clutching at straws. Vote three goes to Guilherme who I thought was probably our best player first half. Plenty of endeavour and could have scored a cracking goal second half had he not overrun the ball at the last moment. Vote four…Jesus wept. Rui Silva didn't do a lot wrong other than not getting across for the goal which is pretty critical. Geny has the two attempts on target but didn't do much else. Araújo was trying to win an oscar. Thankfully you can't see the long pause where I've stopped typing, this is really hard. I'll give it Ioannidis despite being on the pitch a lot shorter time than most of his teammates because he did at least make a difference. Just to put myself out of misery I'll give it to Guilherme. Best of a poor bunch.
They need a win against Arouca next week and those who aren't on international duty need to spend as many minutes on the training pitch together as they possibly can.
