Sporting CP v CD Nacional
Saturday September 5th, 2026
Estádio José Alvalade
Matchday 5
Referee: João Pinheiro
The warm up
The day before their season opener away to CD Santa Clara confirmation of the transfer of Jesús Ramírez to the Turkish side Çorum FK was announced. Fotmob have it listed as a free transfer which seemed an appalling piece of business but I've found a report in Türkiye that suggests actually the fee was €2.5 million with a sell on clause of 50%. Still it feels incredibly cheap given he scored 18 times in the Liga last season. Maybe if Ramírez replicates the same success in the Turkish Super League then they'll profit more off the back end in addition with a secondary transfer. It certainly won't have been good news for the Ex-Sporting mister and new boss of Nacional João Giao. The islanders struggled for goals as it was last season and were heavily reliant on their talismanic forward. Many fans of Portuguese top flight football have them favourites to be relegated. It'll be interesting to see how Giao transitions to life in the top flight. He certainly got off to a sensational first half of last season with the lions youngsters but they went from 1st down to 13th and finished out of the bottom 3 by just 2 points eventually losing 18 games in total. They lost just 2 of their first 13 games then suffered six straight defeats. A mini recovery saw them win 3 straight but that was followed by another four straight defeats. One win, then six defeats arrested by a draw to the eventual runners up Académico de Viseu on the final day. So from the last 36 points on offer they collected just 4. I don't think it's rude to suggest that had he not gotten the Nacional job he'd not have been the Sporting B coach for much longer anyway.
Last season Nacional finished 14th, avoiding the relegation play off spot by just two places and four points. Their record read played 34, winning 9 times, 7 draws and a whopping 18 defeats. That's over half their games ending in defeat and only AVS lost more times with 19, though Tondela would also lose 18 in addition. GF 37, GA 45. Their home record the 13th best in the division saw 6 wins, 2 draws and 9 losses with GF and GA sat at 23. Again their away record the 13th best, they won just 3 times, drawing 5 and losing 9. GF 14, GA 22. When you're statistically losing every other game and you've lost your star striker you start to realise why so many fans have them in their predictions for one of the bottom two places come May.
Their Xg for reference was 40.4. New stat alert Xg difference -12.3 against their actual goal difference of -8. Not sure how useful that statistic is meant to be. They were 7th for shots on target averaging 4.2 per game but their conversion rate was just 8.6% which was the joint 4th lowest of all clubs. 62 big chances created, sixth lowest in the league. Big chances missed - 41. Converting 1 in 3 of your big chances or conversely missing 2 of 3 is tough to swallow, though in fairness we created the most with 120 and missed 70, so by both metrics we were the highest in the Liga.
Ramirez's goals made him the league's fourth highest goalscorer behind our own Luis Suárez, Benfica's Pavlidis and Yanis Begraoui of Estoril. Even with his goals they averaged 1.1 per game. Total clean sheets - 8.
Their average attendance was 2,458 but can at least claim to be more popular than their neighbours in the Azores Santa Clara who averaged just 2,303. I swear I'm the only person obsessed by the fact you have a top flight league in European football where from Gil Vicente down you have 13 clubs who averaged 6,601 or less. Clearly there are much more interesting things to do on the Portuguese mainland and islands.
7 penalties awarded with a conversion rate of 85.7%. Rather incredibly they may have conceded 9 penalties but only 4 were converted. Seems like a good get out of jail free card.
Average accurate crosses per match - 5.00 which was only behind Benfica and Famalicão. Importantly their 27.8% cross success rate was the highest in the league. CD Nacional - winning the battle if not the war. 299 interceptions across the season, a metric Sporting came bottom of with 223. 5th highest for total tackles making 553. WOW 1,038 clearances, third highest. The lions made 553.
14.9 fouls on average per match, the 3rd highest. 92 bookings, the second highest total and 7 reds, again the second highest total.
Of their 37 goals scored 18 were from open play, 11 from set pieces, 1 free kick, 6 penalties and 1 own goal. Paulinho Bóia and Zé Vítor both scored 4 apiece, Léo Santos got 3, 7 others scored a single goal. Eleven players found the net, or twelve if you're being generous and including the own goal scorer. Top for assists was José Gomes with 5. He is at least still with the club at the time of writing.
Head to head in the last 27 meetings going back to September 2010 just 1 win for Nacional which came at home on February 27th, 2011 finishing 1-0. 19 wins for Sporting and 7 draws. Ten straight wins for the lions in all competitions. Nine straight wins in the Liga. The last draw was in October of 2016 which finished 0-0. The lions have scored 29 times in those ten games, Nacional just 6. They did at least score in both games last season albeit losing 2-1 in the José Alvalade when Luis Suárez scored 5 minutes past the 90. They'd kept Sporting at bay until 71 minutes when Pedro Gonçalves scored only to promptly equalise 4 minutes later through their Paraguayan RB Alan Nunez. In Madeira they actually took the lead just 2 minutes in and led 1-0 at halftime. Pablo Ruan picked up a second yellow on 36 minutes which proved to be their undoing. Gonçalves with a second half hat-trick and even youngster Conrad Harder got on the scoresheet before promptly fucking off to RB Leipzig. Still 4-1 as a vast improvement on the 6-1 twelve months earlier - give or take 6 days. That was definitely a welcome back that they didn't enjoy following their promotion back to the Portuguese top flight.
2nd September update - after just four games in charge, the ex-Sporting B mister João Giao has been fired. Bruno Abreu has taken training and is expected to lead the islanders out at the Alvalade on Saturday night. The referee for Saturday night will be... João Pinheiro. *Sighs. Last season we only had the misfortune of having him twice, in the win over Alverca away and the 2-1 loss at the Alvalade in the Dérbi de Lisboa. He's doing the rounds of the big three having officiated in Benfica's 7-0 against Casa Pia away and Porto's 2-0 over Arouca.
4th September update - Alexandre Santos will be the new Nacional mister. His announcement however will not be made official until Monday, therefore Bruno Abreu will lead them for the game against the lions.
Summer transfer Window
Incoming
Mateus Iseppe - Atletico MG (Loan)
Stravos Gavriel - Zulte Wareham (Free)
Renato Marin - PSG (Loan)
João Gonçalves - Universitatea Craiova (Loan)
Daniel de la Cruz - LDU de Quito (Loan)
Danel Dongmo - Petrolul Ploiesti (Free)
Wesley Gasolina - Avai (Free)
Markus Gustav Jensen - OB £387,000
Fernando Nava - Always Ready (Free)
Allen Obando - Inter Miami (Loan)
Mathcoi Djalo - Başakşehir (Free)
William Kokolo - Hannover 96 (Loan)
Min-kyu Song - FC Seoul (Free)
Outgoing
Lucas França - Free Agent
Lenny Vallier - Dunkerque (Free)
André Sousa - União Santarem (Free)
Jota - Machico (Free)
Lucas João - Petro Atlético (Free)
Paulinho Bóia - Released
Cesar Augusto - Sociedade Esportiva Matonense (Loan)
Witi - Pyunik (Free)
João Auerlio - Retired
Jesús Ramírez - Çorum FK (Undisclosed)
Mootaz Nourani - Released
CD Nacional 2026/27 Season to Date
Matchday 1 - Santa Clara (H) 2-2 D
The last of the matchday 1 fixtures in Portugal, the two island sides faced each other in the Monday evening game. A defensive error by Silva was capitalised upon by Vinícius whose shot was saved but went straight to Paciência who bundled the ball home from 13 yards to give Santa Clara the lead with 18 minutes gone. Just two minutes later a corner nearside was headed home by Paciência from 5 yards out to complete his brace and make it 2-0.
On 34 minutes Nacional were awarded a penalty after Romão was adjudged to have fouled new boy Markus Jensen in the 6 yard box. A minute later Liziero stepped up to put the ball into the bottom right hand corner for 2-1. A minute before half time the scores were level once more as a hopeful punt from Ruan back into the area appears to come bouncing back off Romão straight to Baeza who volleyed it first time into the net from 15 yards out with a smart finish.
So a point apiece for the islanders from the Azores and Madeira. The home side definitely had the better chances to have put the game to bed especially when you consider Nacional's Xg would have included 0.79 for the penalty. That's four 2-2 draws on Matchday 1, set in motion by Estrela's comeback Saturday night.
Xg 1.43 to 1.23
Total Attempts 19 - 10
Shots on target 7 - 4
Big chances 4 - 1
Big chances missed 2 - 0
Matchday 2 - Estoril Praia (H) 2-0 W
Ten minutes played and Estoril’s Portuguese midfielder Xeka was shown a yellow card for a late challenge. On minute 21 he brought a fine save from a 24 yard volley well saved by Marin. Fast forward 10 minutes and his afternoon was done when he collected a second booking and was sent off. This came seconds after another long range effort. He stretched high with his boot and connected with the face of Daniel Jr. Estoril now facing the best part of an hour with ten men. A blessing for Nacional who'd been on the back foot for the majority of the opening half hour. An audacious effort from 35 yards plus from Lizeiro just snuck over the Estoril bar on the stroke of half time. 0-0 at the break.
Disbelief on the face of Joel Robles on 67’ when Vitor’s 30 yard shot cannons off the back of a defender en route and deflects to the keepers right for 1-0. Definitely a touch of fortune about the goal but they all count. Leo Santos beat his marker to meet a near side corner from 6 yards to head home the second on 76'.
Substitute de la Cruz came close to making it 3-0 on 82. First Gavriel with an audacious flick over the head of Sierra left him one on one with Robles but his effort didn't match the touch to get him clear. The ball landed straight at the feet of de la Cruz who hit the right hand post from 7 yards. Still it didn't affect the end result. A valuable win for João Giao and his first as a mister in the top flight.
xG 2.08 - 0.82
Total Attempts 20 - 9
Shots on target 3 - 5
Big Chances 5 - 0
Big Chances missed 4 - 0
Matchday 3 - Vitória (A) 1-0 L
Nacional's unbeaten start fell by the wayside in Guimarães.They could have gone behind with just two minutes played as Strata saw his effort from 24 yards tipped over the bar by Marin. However the islanders resistance didn't last more than a minute as Miguel Nogueira's cross was met by Gustavo Silva who forced it the ball home from 6 yards. On 9' Nogueira outs his 16 yard effort just wide of the left hand post. On 26' Silva ran clear of the Nacional high defensive line, snuck his shot under the keeper who jumped expecting to be lobbed and had his defender to thank for clearing the goalbound effort. Nogueira was brought down on 47' and the referee initially pointed to the spot only to be overturned by VAR. Nacional hit the bar on 52' through Liziero's 20 yard curled effort but no one was near the rebound to take advantage. For all their endeavours Vitória couldn't find a second yet managed to get their first win of the campaign.
xG 3.14 - 0.42
Total Attempts 23 - 7
Shots on target 5 - 0
Big Chances 5 - 0
Big Chances missed 4 - 0
August 29th - Originally listed for the Sunday, moved to Friday night, this fixture has beenoved again to Saturday next night.
Matchday 4 - Estrela (H) 2-3 L
The away side celebrated their take over last week with 3 points on the road. Just 2 minutes on the clock when Wesley headed back across goal from Kokolo's cross on the left flank. Linck in goal will feel he should have done better given how far out the Nacional player was when he made contact but take nothing away from the finish. Linck more than made up for it however as he got down low to save from Ruan's acrobatic goalbound effort from 8 yards. Estrela equalised from the penalty spot on 45' after a shove in the box. Stoica sent the keeper the wrong way. 1-1 at half time. Touch of the Jedi mind tricks for Estrela's second on 61' as Marcus with three defenders in front of him somehow got them all to part like the red sea and he stroked the ball home after a fine run into the box from 16 yards into the bottom left hand corner. No such quality of Ruan's equaliser as he took 3 attempts to control the ball en route to finally poking it home from 3 yards on 65'. The winner came on 82' from a flying Antonetti header six yards out to get on the end of Doué cross from the goal line.
xG 0.83 - 2.10
Total attempts 10 - 14
Shots on target 5 - 4
Big chances 1 - 4
Big chances missed 0 - 1
In the markets
Sporting CP 3/20
Draw 11/2
Nacional 12/1
Team News
Starting XI
Silva, Fresneda, Debast, Inácio, Araújo, Altimira, Doumbia, Zalazar, Geny, Gonçalves and Suárez
Substitutes
Pereira, Vagiannidis, Quaresma, Dias, Felicíssimo, Andersen, Lima, Guilherme, Irankunda, Derry, Ioannidis and Nel.
No changes to the starting XI from the 4-0 win over Rio Ave. Pre game talk has been about Ba starting as one of the centre backs. He's not even in the matchday squad placed by Felicíssimo. New signing Pereira replaces Callai as the backup goalkeeper. Nel served his one game suspension this afternoon.
Nacional Starting XI
1 Marin
38 Zé Vítor
33 Gonçalves
34 Santos
21 Kokolo
8 Baeza
6 Dias
52 Wesley
7 Jensen
11 Gavriel
99 Ruan
50 Kevyn, 2 de la Cruz, 88 Deivison, 15 Labidi, 31 Dongmo, 20 Matchoi, 9 Obando, 10 Daniel and 17 Nava.
Three changes from Matchday 4 as Gonçalves, Jensen and Gavriel come into the starting XI. Short on bodies they only name 9 substitutes.
* Note the above has been corrected post match as the data shown to me online wasn't correct. My apologies.
First Half
The lions now go off at 1/11 to win, 15/2 the draw and Nacional all the way out to 18/1. Sporting in their traditional green and white horizontal stripes, Nacional in gold with white trim. Summer definitely a fading memory with the sky above the José Alvalade in darkness and the floodlights are on. 4-3-2-1 for the lions. Nacional set to line up in a 3-4-3 and I will believe that when I see it. Their mister Abreu is stood looking pensive on the touchline as Nacional kick us off. Sporting attack right to left. The José Alvalade is far from full, perhaps people are saving their money for Galatasaray on Wednesday night in the Champions League.
3 Suárez wins a corner far side with good work inside the box
3 Nacional twice scrambled the ball clear unconvincingly, first with a punch from Marin and then a defensive header. Zalazar tries from 24 yards but appeared to slip as he did so and the ball shot up in the air and landed about five yards from the far edge of the goal line inside the box
4 Booking to Araújo for a shirt pull. João Pinheiro as always adhering himself to the home fans
6 Araújo wins a corner near side. Nacional defenders already playing the blame game with one another in the centre
7 Nacional sat defending in a 5-4-1. Said I'd believe the 3-4-3 when I saw it
9 So close from Zalazar from 24 yards as his low strike goes about 8 inches past the left hand post
10 Touch like a trampoline from the Nacional player near side and the ball goes out for a lions throw
11 Suárez penalised for hand ball in the final third
11 I wrote in my preview that Nacional surely wouldn't hold such a high line against the lions but they are at points though quickly dropping back into a banks of 5 and 4 with just six yards in between the two rows
12 Léo Santos clears for a corner. Geny squared the ball into the six yard box but straight to the defender. Perhaps he thought we were playing in our away kit?
14 Nacional again sat just 12 yards from the half way line in their initial shape
16 Araújo doesn't give up on an overhit pass and was right to as it hit a corner flag. Perhaps he watched the Inter game earlier when their players thought the ball had gone for a throw and was still in play and Napoli scored from it
16 Clumsy challenge from behind by Ruan on Inácio results in nothing more than a free kick
18 Doumbia finds row Z from 24 yards with a wild effort. Three attempts all off target for the lions
19 Altimira booked for a foul outside the area for a shove on the shoulder. Home fans make their displeasure known once more
20 Free kick 28 yards out centrally. Fired straight into the wall by Zé Vítor
22 Great tackle in the centre sets Nacional away on the counter but the defence mopped up
22 Marin takes no chances with Geny bearing down on him and opts to simply kick to touch
25 Corner far side to Sporting after good work initially by Geny in the far corner
26 Incredible save from Geny 20 yards out whose effort was going into the bottom left hand corner
26 Zalazar tries again from 24 yards but pulls it wider of the left hand post than his last attempt
29 Another brilliant save this time from Araújo from inside the D. Corner nearside to the lions
29 Blocked shot from 30 yards by Araújo
30 Araújo taken down unceremoniously inside the box and penalty awarded
31 GOAL Sporting CP 1 CD Nacional 0. Luis Suárez sends Marin left as the ball goes into the bottom right hand corner. He points to the sides of his mouth with a false smile celebration not once but twice within the space of a minute. The second time he bursts into laughter as the fans chant his name. Perhaps we can all move on now as he claims his fourth goal in three games
35 Good defending by Debast who watches a high cross from the right to head clear
36 Léo Santos clutching his leg and needs treatment. He ran into the back of Altimira and seemed to twist something as he went down. He receives treatment and as he makes his way to the side gives a shake of the head
37 We're back underway. Nacional down to ten for now
38 Marin keeps his side in it again saving low to his right from ten yards from Suárez. That's a phenomenal piece of goalkeeping
38 Corner near side to the lions. Ends with Geny who fires over from 20 yards
40 Nacional back to their full compliment of players by the way as Zalazar back heels the ball into the defender behind him to win a corner far side. Given the shake of the head from Léo Santos you can only guess they've asked him to try get to half time
41 Corner near side to the lions. I've lost count already. Not that I ever do count them
41 Corner far side. The pressure is relentless
42 We're treated to a replay of the Suárez effort. Like last week he started the move and played a great one two with Araújo and continued his run.
Plus one shown
45 Baeza brings a good save from Silva low to his right from 25 yards. He points to his eye as if to say I saw it every inch of the way
Half time
Sporting CP 1 CD Nacional 0
The scoreline definitely doesn't tell the story of the first half. Three huge saves from Marin has kept the scoreline respectable for the islanders for now as the lions go in just one goal to the good. A single effort on target from the visitors which came seconds before the end of the first half. Before then their only attempt has been the free kick into the wall. We've seen in Madeira the islanders capitulate to Sporting on more than one occasion with a 6-1 and 4-1 in recent seasons. You have to imagine that Marin’s good fortune cannot hold forever. xG 1.15 to 0.07. Total attempts 10 - 2. Corners 10 - 0. Possession 72% to 28%. The only thing Nacional have going for them is Pinheiro’s hard on for booking Sporting players. Neither booking for a poor challenge which has left a player injured, one shirt pull and one push in the shoulder that Gavriel made a meal of. He kicked Araújo in the midriff at one point in the first half and the challenge on Inácio from behind was poor. In turn no booking for the foul on Araújo for the penalty. Should we expect anything less from this man? I think not.
Second Half
➡️⬅️ Léo Santos for Deivison Brito
Sporting get us back underway. So as expected the enforced change for the islanders in defence. Not sure why they'd risk him being out for longer when he was clearly struggling coming off to the side having received treatment.
47 Nacional seem to have swapped to a 4-4-2
47 Jensen is booked for a foul on Geny which is surprising because I didn't see him come on. Apparently he started. That's not what was on the team sheet and hour before kick off. Liziero didn't start from the lineup above and amongst the substitutes so possibly injured in the warm up? Or perhaps Fotmob just got it wrong altogether.
48 GOAL Sporting CP 2 CD Nacional 0. Gonçalves scores his third of the season. Suárez laid it on a plate for him to stroke the ball home from 12 yards. Debast with a beautiful through ball for the Colombian to chase down, he had two gold shirts to the left of him and he cut the ball in between them both and the youngster was unmarked. Great team goal
52 Geny shoved in the back inside the box went to ground. Referee not interested
54 We're shown the replay of the foul on Geny. He definitely got clipped from behind though it may have been about two inches outside when the initial contact was made. Not shoved as it originally appeared my apologies
56 João Simões and Nuno Santos watch on from the box
56 Nacional holding a high line around the 36 yard mark which is not a good idea
58 Beautiful football from Sporting near side with a clever series of passes to try get Fresneda clear. Nacional needed a last ditch sliding tackle to stop the move
59 We're treated to the reverse angle of the Debast pass for Suárez. What a through ball . He really does have a wand of a foot. If only he didn't have a rush of blood to the head every now and then
60 Araújo causing havoc down the left flank and inside the box. Nacional defenders struggling to contain his threat
61 Inventive bicycle kick from Dias who was initially on his back inside his area to get the danger clear
61 ⬅️➡️ Obando for Ruan and for Labidi for Jensen.
64 Clever footwork from Gonçalves but he overhits his cross. Triple substitution incoming. Ioannidis getting instructions from the mister. I'm guessing Geny about to go off
66 ⬅️ ➡️ Geny for Guilherme. Irankunda for Zalazar. Suárez for Ioannidis. Geny is fast becoming the Jared Bowen of Sporting
67 Dias grabs both shoulders of Altimira. Not a booking. Explain that to me if a shirt pull is?
69 The visitors set for another substitution
70 Debast looks for Ioannidis and has Marin rushing well out his area to clear for a throw in
70 Dangerous ball into the six yard box somehow cleared by Nacional. Ioannidis was looking for Irankunda in the centre
72 ⬅️ ➡️ Matchoi for Gavriel. I appreciate every Portuguese club needs the money but Gavriel is not a patch on Ramírez
73 If Nacional defenders are happy to see Araújo drop back, they've got an event worse job on their hands with Irankunda. Kids got magnets in his dancing feet. Like watching a magician entertaining kids, they just stood in amazement as the ball evaded them all
74 Fresneda gets on the end of a lovely weighted pass by Guilherme and sees his shot from the edge of the six yard box pushed behind for a corner
74 Fresneda stings the hands of Marin from 16 yards
76 Ioannidis whistles a shot past the far post from 20 yards
77 ⬅️➡️ Vagiannidis for Araújo
78 36 yard shot from Deivison stung the hands of Silva and the ball bounced back out but no gold shirt anywhere close
80 ➡️⬅️ Baeza for Daniel. That's all five changes made for the visitors
82 Ioannidis hits the bar and smashes the floor in frustration. Irankunda with the most nonchalant pass the José Alvalade has seen in years. Absolutely brilliant to set the Greek free who twisted and turned to find the space to get his shot away. He turns Gonçalves twice from one way to the other and the ball actually strikes Marin from 8 yards out and spun up onto the bar
84 Irankunda trying to beat Ronaldo’s step over count inside the Nacional box. You'd hate to mark this kid
86 Lovely first touch drag back inside the box from our Gonçalves but he's tackled as he tried to cut the ball back to find room for a shot
86 ⬅️➡️ Anderson for Altimira
88 The ball just won't go in for Ioannidis as his shot from 12 yards is deflected for a corner near side
89 Irankunda set free by Guilherme but appears to slip as he put it over from 12 yards
Plus two shown
+2 Doumbia slips as he tried to get a pass away inside the box. It looped up to Guilherme at the far post but he can only turn it wide from a yard out. He was always stretching in fairness to the Brazilian
Full time
Sporting CP 2 CD Nacional 0
Quick Post Game Summary
They won't give the official man of the match to Marin in the Nacional goal because that's not how these things work but he should be because he has truly been outstanding tonight. We seem to get at least one performance like this a season from a visiting goalkeeper as if auditioning for a future place in the lions squad.
Ten substitutions made and two minutes of additional time. Well that sums up the officiating team tonight.
That was easily the most comprehensive victory and performance of the season. That could just be because Nacional were so bad but it does at least give me a bit more confidence going into Wednesday night with an Osihmen less Galatasaray.
The Final Word
The irony for the incoming Nacional coach must be that he thinks he knows his starting goalkeeper for the remainder of the season if nothing else but with the transfer window open and any other teams coaches watching on might well be tempted to see if they can get the Italian out the door. He really was sensational at points tonight and probably the only Nacional player who didn't deserve to end up on the losing team.
Definitely the most comprehensive performance from the lions tonight albeit not reflected in the scoreline but we've highlighted the obvious reason as to why for that. On another night it could easily have been 5 or 6-0. Still not perfect but unlike some sections of our fanbase I appreciate it's very much a work in progress. The first real test comes on Wednesday night and we'll see how they do in the Champions League. I've slept easier knowing that there will be no Victor Osihmen that's for certain.
Plenty of positives with the substitutes coming on which was part of the issue in the first three games of the season where they didn't contribute enough. A second straight clean sheet for Rui Silva who unlike online has the backing of the fans inside the stadium who gave it two large Rui’s with his save in either half. He maybe didn't deal with the second one the best but it was sweetly struck in fairness to him and he's probably learned after Estrela to get a far cleaner contact and let his defenders do the rest of the work.
Scoring goals is not the issue for this side, come the end of May they'll have no doubt clocked three figures total again in all competitions combined. It's again at the back where they need to grow and the loss of Diomande does feel huge. In Portugal really top young players are near impossible to keep hold of. Every season there's talk about Inácio moving on. So if the first part is true you can only ascertain that he's not that highly rated around Europe otherwise he'd have been long gone. I think this is either his sixth or seventh season as a lion now. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong. What Debast can do with the ball at his feet seems limitless. But that goes through the entire spectrum of free kicks that move an inch, sliced clearances in the Supertaça on his debut to magic passes that look like they've been thrown by a quarterback on a dime. If you could get an iron and have a go at his defensive ricks then you could see a big club come in for him one day.
Pedro Gonçalves and Daniel Bragança both made their Serie A debuts on the same game today which must have felt strange to them both. I was watching Alisson Santos play for Napoli and he was superb and I was pining for him up until the point Irankunda put in his cameo performance tonight and thought I'm obviously easily brought. He battered his boots at me like long eye lashes and it was Alisson who? They're both raw but incredibly talented and I'd like us to get the benefit of one of them so let's hope the Australian gets a fair crack of the whip but it's not going to be easy. You've got players lining up for that slot now. Nuno Santos is set to be fit next month in addition to Zalazar, Derry and Gonçalves. Nice headache for Rui Borges to have, though knowing our injury record he won't have it for long.
It's amazing what confidence can do for a player because the difference with Flávio Gonçalves from last season to this is night and day. I was so excited to see him last season and just assumed he wasn't ready which was fair enough and that his time would hopefully come. I didn't think it would come this quickly. I've never rated Quenda and spent months saying I hope he's been learning French. I was nearly right but it was Essugo who got sent out to Strasbourg, and yet I don't think Quenda will be more than a year behind. Gonçalves has impressed me more in four pre season games and five full appearances than Quenda did over all his appearances. You can check my match reports, I'm not after timing. I'd love Gonçalves to keep it up, there's something magical about our academy and Mauro Couto is going to save another fortune in the transfer market. He was sublime for Sporting B again this afternoon.
João Giao’s dismissal seems strange especially given he'd have more insight than most into the lions setup going in to tonights game. It'll come out in the wash I'm sure. Losing Ramírez would hurt any side not just Nacional. I fear for them. Despite a raft of signings over the summer they still couldn't fill a bench with substitutes tonight and what was on the field other than Marin didn't sing league survival to me. Their new coach has a big task on his hands and if he had any sense before he signs the contract on Monday he might think again on the evidence of tonight. For every club that seems to take a step forward they're only a season away from taking two back again. Like Famalicão who we face next week. Fifth place finish last time out and now no win in their opening five games. Selling Sá and Ba could for the balance sheet but their loss plus that of their mister has seen their form drop off a cliff season on season. They have been pretty substandard to date. That will be where Nacional's hope lies, that come May there's at least two clubs who've been worse than you because you might be able to win a play off game.
Nacional aren't my problem though. So back to tonight's game.
xG 3.00 to 0.08.
Total attempts 19 - 3
Touches in opposition box 31 - 3
Big chances 6 - 0
Big chances missed 4 - 0
Corners 12 - 0
File that under C for comprehensive but with a scoreline that didn't reflect the dominance. Altimira and Doumbia at points were sat like marshalls in front of the defence on the odd occasion Nacional made it over the halfway line and provided adequate cover albeit not helped at points by the referee but that's him all over. Portugal's best referee? Fuck off and do me a solid. I can't really tell you what Inácio did but Fresneda looks back to his best and could have had a goal. Another benefitting from Trincão moving. Previously his job was to take a man with his runs to open up space where now he can be the option for the end ball. Debast we've covered and Maxi terrorised them second half and if it was a criminal offence he'd be doing ten to life.
Maybe not Geny's best performance but he still contributed plenty. Better from Zalazar but that may say more about his performances the past couple of games. He will see the net catch the ball at some point soon. His first effort past the post didn't miss by much.
Anderson didn't get enough time to get his kit dirty. Guilherme added another 1% (see my Rio Ave post game comments. He's like a phone charging on a cheap cable. At some point he's going to be close to maximum. He's going up in my estimations every week. Ioannidis with another great cameo, unfortunate not to find the net. Again how we needed him in last season's run in. He's keeping Suárez on his toes and vice versa which can only be a good thing. Irankunda we've covered already but to summarise he's clearly got talent but it's a rough cut diamond at present and someone needs to get the polishing cloth out. You do feel if chasing a game he's going to be a difference maker. *Post match edit note - You forgot all about Vagiannidis. Yes I did. I think it's a safety mechanism activated by my brain.
So let's go with four for man of the match. I'm going to be a Countdown contestant and pick two from the front and two from the back. Vote one goes to Maxi who looks pretty much fully fit now and is as good a player as I've seen since following the lions. Top rate again especially in the final third. Great link up play with Suárez and he tormented their defence. Vote two goes to Fresneda my unsung lion. Always puts a shift in. Covers every blade of grass running up and down the right wing. Stung the hands of the keeper twice and close to full fitness which is huge with Champions League football on Wednesday. Vote three Flávio Gonçalves, another goal, another solid performance where you can see his footballing IQ and ability to cause so many issues in the final third. Vote four has to be Luis Suárez. His goal may have come from the penalty spot but Marin's save to keep his effort out from the one two with Araújo was top quality. The intelligence and awareness for the Gonçalves assist I think impressed me most. He's firing on all cylinders and this time last year he'd have taken that as a shot and not squared it. I think the penny has dropped that to get success it's a team game. Individual merits like being top goalscorer count for nothing. It's between the Colombian and the Uruguayan. It's close but I think you have to go on an overall performance not just three or four moments that would grace any highlight reel and so Araújo gets it again from me. I think I might genuinely cry when that lad is sold and sit in a dark corner rocking all summer.
I've just seen Marin only got a 4.9 rating out of 10 against Estrela last weekend. Clearly he owed them a massive performance tonight then and that he did!
Galatasaray up next.
