Sporting CP 2 Club Sport Marítimo 1
Tuesday October 27th, 2026
Estádio José Alvalade
Taça da Liga Quater Final
The warm up
Like many clubs we cover, Marítimo were formed under a different name entirely - Club Português de Sport Marítimo. This was done by Cândido Fernandes de Gouveia on September 20th, 1910. Whilst they'll play in the Portuguese top flight they're not actually based on the mainland but on the Portuguese held territory of the island of Madeira. They're also a sporting club competing in volleyball, handball, athletics, figure skating (really?), fishing, futsal… OK I'm bored now.
Fifteen days after their formation on October 5th the Portuguese monarchy was overthrown following a three day coup d’état and the Portuguese republic was born with the now familiar colours of green and red which Marítimo chose to adopt as their own too. Hence once of their nicknames, Os Verde-Rubros (The Green-Reds). Marítimistas, being the other most used. Note their name translates to maritime in English and was a reflection of many of its players working at the local Funchal docks. Many of their earliest games took place against sailors on British ships however their very first game was against a side very familiar to Sportinguista's from the last couple of seasons in Santa Clara who were a select team composed of workers of the Western Telegraph Company in the Azores. Their main rivals at the time were Club Sports da Madeira who played in blue and white which were the traditional colours of the fallen monarchy which seems like a proper basis for a rivalry compared to that of Sporting's and Santa Clara’s. I'm not opening that can of worms again here and now it's safe to say.
Before their relegation in 2023 they'd been a top flight side since 1985 and for a period were frequent representatives of the league in European competition. I know this because I've seen them play on English soil. Their one major domestic title was 100 years ago in the 1925/26 season when they won the Taça de Portugal. I'm not looking to see who they beat so if you want to know look it up. At the time of writing I'm only eight days out from the defeat to Torreense. As Bruno de Carvalho one famously said ‘The Taça is shit!’
They play at the Estádio do Marítimo and as mentioned in the last Matchday post of the 2025/26 season against Torreense in the Taça de Portugal final, not only were they the best supported side in Liga 2, but their average attendance makes them one of the best supported sides in all of the Portuguese leagues. Given the stadium holds 10,600 if you're new to Portuguese football and have just raised an eyebrow there I'll say you can be forgiven. The club has 12,000 members (socios) which makes them the sixth biggest team in the country and no, I'm really not shitting you. Their most famous member? A certain CR7. Funchal being his birthplace and the airport was home to his legendary melted face statue which I believe has now sadly been replaced. The stadium is nicknamed O Caldeirão (The Cauldron). Do we think Rui Patrício is aware of this and if so do you think he might claim that someone cast a spell on him in the final game of the 2017/18 when he dropped a bollock in time added on at the end of the 90 minutes? Guess whose spent the best part of two months learning about the attacks at Alcochete and is now a bit too over familiar with Marítimo, Madeira and Funchal Airport's part in the entire sorry tale? It was also once known formerly as the Estádio dos Barreiros and old habits die hard amongst some of the locals who still refer to is as such.
The original ground situated on the site opened in 1927 and was home to Nacional before being shared with both Marítimo and União. They must have had a well paid Groundsman or maybe just a very overworked one. A newer stadium opened in May 1957. Only in 2000 did it become obvious that the pitch couldn't sustain the wear and tear of 3 sets of club's fixtures on it and Nacional vacated. In 2008 União also left and by 2016 a third stadium had been erected on the same site which is the one found in the present day.
They secured promotion back to the top flight winning Liga 2. Their record played 34, won 20, drawn 6, losing 8, GF 50, GA 29. This was predicated very much on their defence and strangely their away record. You'd think being an island side playing at a ground nicknamed the cauldron because of its intimidating atmosphere would be more of a benefit but apparently not. Viseu, Torreense and FC Porto B all enjoyed better records at home. Played 17, won 9, drawn 4, losing 4, GF 22, GA 17. Away they had the number one record. Again played 17, won 11, drawn 2, losing 4, GF 28, GA a paltry 12. They recorded 14 clean sheets, 2 less than fellow promotion side Académico Viseu.
Top scorers were Adrián Butzke and Carlos Daniel with 10 apiece. Noah Madsen collected more yellows than they did goals with 11 in total. Simo Bouzaidi contributed 8 goals with 4 from the penalty spot. The other goals were shared amongst ten other players.
Of their promotion winning team Marco Cruz on loan from Vitória, was formerly with Sporting U19s and Sporting B playing 29 and scoring 3 times. Alexander Guedes also started on the same path but only ever made 3 appearances.
On the discipline front they received 96 bookings and 10 red cards which was the joint second highest behind Torreense with 11.
Their largest home win was against Leixoes 3-2 (Doesn't feel like much does it?), away the 4-0 defeat of Lusitania Lourosa.
When they were relegated in 2022/23 they finished third bottom meaning they had to play off against Liga 2’s third place side Estrela. They lost in Lisboa 2-1, won the return leg 2-1 to make it 3-3 but succumbed to a 3-2 defeat on penalties.
The last time the two sides met the islanders were heading for the double over the lions having taken a 1-0 lead after just 9 minutes at the Estádio José Alvalade. A Costa own goal finally brought it level 6 minutes before time and captain Coates made it 2-1 two minutes past the 90. A Winck penalty on 55 in Madeira was enough for a 1-0 win in the first meeting of the two teams. We got played off the park that day. One of those games you can't tell whether they were truly great or not because we were that fucking bad. Still they've had their arses handed to them on a couple of occasions. December 2022 Sporting won 5-0 with a Paulinho hat-trick in the Taça da Liga group phase. May 2021 the lions won 5-1 and again in January 2018 we have another 5-0.
Their previous mister Vítor Matos left in November 2025 after Swansea City triggered his €1m release clause. He was replaced by Miguel Moita who was formerly the Sporting assistant coach during the 2013/14 season under Leonardo Jardim.
***
The above was written in June for a piece I was going to do on both the promoted sides and never got around to publishing. At some point I'll learn to stop writing about the opponents mister in advance of the game. Marítimo hired Mitchell van der Gaag in June. He'd been out of work since leaving FC Zürich in the October of 2025. Previous to that he'd been the assistant coach of Manchester United.
The future of the Taça da Liga
It may not be an existential question but it is maybe one that's still worth asking all the same, namely, what is the point in the Taça da Liga? The word Liga as part of the tournaments name no longer seems fit for purpose. Could you take action against the league under the trades description act?
Just to quantify the Taça da Liga is the Portuguese equivalent of the League Cup and is more commonly known as the Allianz Cup despite the latter being an English word. Portugal was late to the party in terms of European countries having their own version of the tournament introducing it as late as the 2007/08 season. The Carabao Cup, the current iteration of the League Cup, was first held in 1960/61 by way of comparison. In it's twenty years history the Taça has undergone many format changes and it's now been whittled down to just eight teams competing; the top six finishers in the Liga from the previous season and the two promoted clubs from Liga 2. Only four clubs have competed in all twenty of those competitions and if you know anything about Portuguese football then it will come as no surprise to learn that those four sides are Sporting, Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting Braga. Because the top six qualify for the tournament, that means the defending title holders SC Vitória aren't able to defend it. Instead you have Marítimo and Académico de Viseu competing. So why does it still exist if you're not going to let all teams compete in it minus the big boys B teams? Why not simply scrap it all together?
At one stage you found yourself involved in a round robin with three other clubs and the winner progressed to the knockout rounds. Now if you're one of the big boys of Portuguese football involved in European competition then I get totally why you wouldn't want to continue with that format. By the same respects if you were a smaller team, the cost of hosting a game against a similar size club might make it financially unviable and you'd be left hoping to be drawn in with one of the big boys, however that would severely dampen your chances of qualification to the knockout out rounds so it's a Catch 22. So why not just have a phased tournament where the smaller sides including Liga 2 clubs play a knockout phase, then throw places 7 to 18 from the top flight in and finally, say in round 4, throw the clubs in who are involved in European competition? Whilst Vitória bucked the trend last season with their win, it's basically a tournament for one of the four clubs previously mentioned to add a title to their palmarès. It's a get out of jail free card for Os Três Grandes to potentially be able to say at the end of a season - well we won one title, even if it's just the Taça da Liga. Last season despite losing to SC Vitória I'd like to think I was quite gracious in defeat and going on the record saying that their win was a good thing for Portuguese football. I even doubled down with Torreense in the Taça de Portugal.
In the barren years at Sporting where we couldn't have brought a league title, I will admit thag I did get quite excited about winning the Taça da Liga but when we went out last season no fucks were given. That of course sounds flippant but it's not meant to be, I circle back to my previous point that Vitória winning felt good for Portuguese football as a whole and had they not then maybe I'd have had some sense of delayed annoyance.
I think we all know well enough that in the semi finals even if the game is a Dérbi de Lisboa or O Clássico that Os Três Grandes are not going to field a full side in those games, so again truthfully, what is the point in it still existing? Maybe it is an existential question afterall?
Success in Portugal does come at a cost, we saw that with the lions last season who ended up coming off the rails in the final weeks after their efforts in the Champions League. Whereas your likes of AVS and Tondela were playing one game a week from January onwards and that became a huge leveller for them. I know boo hoo, hoo get your hankies out. It is a serious point though and at some point someone is going to have to take player welfare seriously. It's not just the physical welfare either but also the mental side. I write a day after the Braga game which was the first game back after the 20 day international break. The quality of the game was awful, Braga had a pass completion of 84% and the lions 85%. We lost Rodrigo Zalazar to injury. We didn't start with him, Maxi Araújo or Luis Suárez which contributed in part to going in at the break losing. You've got the travel element and the impact physically but also mentality whereby you might be away from a partner or your kids for twenty days. You might be reasonably well paid in Portuguese football in the upper echelons but you're sacrificing huge parts of your life nonetheless. When you travel to play for your country or in Europe it's not like you're doing the tourist part of the trip. You'd be in, game and out. If you're fortunate and playing at home afterwards you get some time in with the family and then off you go again. You make one mistake in a game and your fan base takes it like you've just shat on their dinner plate. The modern football fan has got used to watching football from a high vantage point with a 360° view of every incident thanks to endless replays. Go down to your local park and in real time try figure out what's happening in games. It would be a huge culture shock for an awful lot of fans. Also learn the fucking rules of the game like the handball law.
Sorry went off on another massive tangent there. If you want to keep the tournament then structure it properly and not for the benefit of the big boys. Portuguese football has a growth problem. Well it does outside of Os Três Grandes. How do you help get eyes on for the smaller teams in the league of which pretty much every club other than six Portuguese sides could be classified as based on their average attendances. If you can't get eyes on men's football in Portugal then frankly you're pretty much on a hiding to nothing in terms of the the women's game and producing any type of growth and sustainability. It's not as though football is expensive to watch in Portugal. I've seen it plenty of times where top flight clubs are charging Sportinguista's between €12 and €15 to watch the game away which is ridiculously cheap compared to the English pyramid at all four levels. You would be doing well if you could get into any of the 92 league clubs for that type of money. Yet you can't get bums on seats. So the question has to be why not? I imagine the average person on the street would say because the game is rigged. If you don't even have entry to one of three national competitions unless you happen to be promoted from Liga 2 or finish in the top six of the top flight, how can you dream of winning anything? You need seasons like the last one in Portugal desperately so that fans of smaller clubs could start to dream. Children might take an interest in their local sides all over the country if they thought there was a chance of winning something. Let's face it if Sporting are in the final and you're from a lower league there's a pretty good chance you'll win based on the past sample size both recent and historic. This might be my round about way of getting my excuses in early for losing to Marítimo…well it's good for Portuguese football, I'm OK with it.
Sporting don't help themselves in cup competitions all too often. I forget how many times we went into extra time last season. I want to say three, definitely two which off the top of my head would have been Paços de Ferreira and Santa Clara. I can even tell you the total attempts in the first game without looking over 120 minutes which was 39 only surpassed by the home leg of the Bodø/Glint Champions League tie which had 40. So maybe with a better format and more clubs like Sporting who can shoot themselves in the foot spectacularly on a regular occasion, then the Taça da Liga could have a purpose. But right now be like France and get rid of it. If you can't make it inclusive and some type of level playing field then don't bother with it at all.
Given we're soon to play Marítimo in the league and I've done a brief history above I'll do a deeper dive into them and the history between the two sides in the later league post.
Summer Transfer Window
Incoming
Rafael Fernandes - Lille (loan)
Nathanael Ogbeta - Plymouth (Free)
Tomás Tavares - Free agent
Gábor Szalai - Ferencvaros (loan)
Samuel Bamba - Bochum (Free)
Yellu Santiago - Hellas Verona (Loan)
Israel Isaac Ayuma - NK Istra 1961 (Loan)
Maurice Boakye - Hamburger SV (Free)
Maxime Dominguez - Cracovia €100,000
Bryan Limbombe - Heracles (Free)
Fran Vieltes - Leicester City (Free)
Ibrahim Alani - Real Valladolid (Free)
Nilton Varela - Beerschot (Free)
Mons Bassouamina - Pafos (Undisclosed)
Outgoing
Guirassy - União de Leiria (Free)
Samu - Maccabi Netanya (Free)
Francisco França - Felgueiras £172,000
Preslav Borukov - Botev Vratsa (Free)
Rodrigo Borges - Released
Alexander Guedes - Released
Almeida - Sabah FK (Free)
Afonso Freitas - Felgueiras (Free)
Martim Fernandes - Academia (Free)
Junior Almeida - Sabah (Free)
André Rodrigues - Chaves (Free)
Carlos Daniel to Al-Jabalain (Free)
Noah Madsen - Holstein Kiel £602,000
Pedro Teixeira - AD Camacha (Loan)
Club Sport Marítimo 2026/27 season
Matchday 1 - Casa Pia (H) 1-0 W
The home side opened the scoring in their first game back in the top flight following promotion. On the hour mark Tejón crossed perfectly from the left wing to find the head of Guzzo who guided it past André Gomes from the edge of the six yard box. It was a better finish than his celebration dance to Zombie Nation which needs some work. This proves to be the only goal of the game and secured 3 points for the islanders.
Xg 1.28 - 0.64
Total Attempts 16 - 9
Big chances 2 - 1
Big chances missed 1 - 1
Matchday 2 - Famalicão (A) 1-2 W
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. For the newly promoted side a 100% win record. They'll be hoping to make it 3 from 3 when they face fellow promotion side Academico Viseu next Saturday at home.
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 - Académico de Viseu (H) 2-2 D
Sometimes goals aren't always pretty but that doesn't mean they're not pretty effective. A long throw from the visitors on the far side was flicked on by Anthony Correia onto the head of André Clovis who guided it past Pastor in the Marítimo net from 4 yards out on 24' for 1-0. Fernandes attempted header fell way short of it's target and was latched upon by Soufiane Messeguem twenty yards from goal. He continued his run into the box to calmly slot past Pastor into the bottom right hand corner from 12 yards to double Viseu's lead on 45'.Clovis thought he had made it 3-0 just 2 minutes after the restart but saw his effort ruled out after he was ruled offside. Henrique made it 2-1 on 69' following a long throw from the near side. Some woeful defending from the visitors finally allowed the Portuguese left back to force it home past 3 black shirts from 8 yards. Adrián Butzke levelled from the penalty spot with 3 minutes remaining sending Ewerton the wrong way. The islanders remain unbeaten. The less said about the pitch the better which looked like it had hosted a tractor ploughing competition. Still time after the 90 for the Académico mister Bruno Pinheiro to be sent off.
Total attempts 11 - 13
Shots on target 4 - 7
Big Chances 1 - 4
Big Chances Missed 0 - 2
xG 1.28 - 1.84
Matchday 4 - FC Arouca (A) 2-1 L
The Lobos were looking to get back to winning ways after their first defeat of the campaign to FC Porto last time out against one of the two newly promoted sides. Going into the game the side from Madeira were unbeaten in their opening 3 fixtures collecting 7 of 9 possible points on offer.
On 11' van Ee's vicious effort from 24 yards skimmed off the top of the islanders cross bar and behind to safety. Butter fingers from Pastor when he dropped a harmless long range Fukui free kick from 32 yards onto the feet of Tejón but the keeper recovered well enough to push the Spaniards effort out for a corner. On 22' the home side had their own cross bar to thank after really good work to fashion a chance for Andrade from 8 yards. Suspicion that the Arouca keeper got the faintest of touches on the shot before it cannoned back off the bar and to safety. It was Tejón who smashed home the opening goal from 12 yards on 26' and I wonder if de Arruabarrena was suffering from a clash of heads because all of a sudden he's shown wearing a swimming cap.
Touch of fortune to the equaliser on 44' as van Ee's effort from 8 yards deflected up off a defender and over Pastor into the net. It was all too easy for Barbero to head home unmarked from 3 yards from Gozálbez's perfectly floated cross on 54' and the home side ahead for the first time in the game. The Wolves forward's goal proving to be the winner. Three wins from four for them. A first defeat for the islanders but 7 points from 12 will give them massive hope that they'll stay up come May.
xG 1.65 - 0.67
Total Attempts 17 - 12
Shots on target 7 - 4
Big Chances 2 - 1
Big Chances Missed 1 - 1
Matchday 5 - Benfica (H) 0-3 L
Just 6 minutes gone when Prestianni's shot from 18 yards stung the hands of Pastor and flew back out to Barreiro who shrugged of the attensions of a defender and slammed home from 13 yards to make it 1-0 to the visitors. On 16' Pavilidis saw his curled effort from the edge of the D strike the right hand post and go behind for a goal kick. It wasn't until 20 minutes from time that the Eagles doubled their lead. A long cross was headed back across the six yard box by Pavlidis onto the head of Barreiro who converted from a yard from just inside the near post. With 9 to play the goal of the night came from Prestianni who started his run from inside his own half, rode the challenge of one player, continued into the box and with two defenders in front and one still behind, curled the ball into the bottom right hand corner from half a yard inside the 18 yard box.
xG 0.12 - 1.31
Total Attempts 6 - 11
Shots on target 1 - 6
Big Chances 0 - 1
Big Chances Missed 0 - 0
Matchday 6 - Moreirense (A) 3-1 L
The ex-Sporting midfielder Manuel Mendonça scored from 3 yards at the far post to open the scoring on 17' for os verdes e brancos. They doubled the lead on 28' through Leonardo Vonić. The islanders were attempting to play out from the back when a pass hit the heel of Henrique straight to a Moreirense player just outside of the 18 yard box who laid it off again. Quick thinking from Bondoso whose pass found Vonić inside the area and he turned his marker to make space to then fire through the legs of goalkeeper Pastor. Vonić came close to making it 3-0 on 49' from 5 yards but somehow a defender in front of him blocked the shot clear for a corner. The visitors made it interesting on 78' with a header at the far post from Correia four yards out which was headed on the line up into the net to half the deficit. On 84' Pastor quite literally sent Duville-Parsemain flying inside the box to concede a penalty. The forward stepped up a minute later to stroke the ball into the bottom right hand corner to put the game to bed.
xG 2.00 - 0.76
Total attempts 11 - 9
SHots on target 5 - 2
Big chances 4 - 1
Big chances missed 1 - 0
Matchday 7 - Gil Vicente (A) 1-1 D
Poor marking allowed Murilo to open the scoring from 12 yards on 6 minutes. The roosters should have doubled their lead on 13' but having beaten the defence Hernández appeared to slip before knocking the ball wide from 8 yards out. 23' Murilo had the ball in the net a second time only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. 27' García came close to scoring what would have been a contender for goal of the season as he nutmegged his marker before unleashing a shot from 24 yards that went inches past the left hand post. 38' The islanders almost found an equaliser as Esgaio (yes that one) failed to stop a cross from the left wing which found the head of Guzzo unmarked 6 yards out but he failed to even hit the target and his effort ended up way past the far post. The roosters got away with another one on 43' when Szalai headed down from 5 yards with the goal gaping and it bounced up wide of the wrong side of the post.
Just 21 seconds after the restart Domingez brought a save from 14 yards but in truth the connection was poor. Still Marítimo were getting closer. 72' Igor Julião earned a literal pat on the bum from his keeper when he blocked a shot from 10 yards. Francisco Vieites may have earned himself a call from HR, who knows, this is football afterall. 90+2' Hail Mary from Vieites downfield from 18 yards inside his own half. Header flicked onto Boakye who layed it off right to Ayuma. Sublime piece of skill to let the ball run past the defender before taking one touch to control and the second saw him smash home the equaliser from 7 yards so steal a point.
xG 1.20 - 0.86
Total Attempts 19 - 10
Shots on Target 8 - 4
Big Chances 3 - 3
Big Chances Missed 2 - 2
Matchday 8 - FC Porto (H) 1-2 L
15' The home side took the lead when Szalai's speculative 33 yard effort caught Costa flat footed in the Porto goal and whistled into the bottom right hand corner for 1-0. 23' The Porto defence at sixes and sevens when a low cross into the six yard box by Butzke was parried by Costa onto a defender and somehow away from danger. 41' A cross from the right wing was met by a leaping Moura header 7 yards out which brought a save from Vieites. Unfortunately for him the ball landed at the feet of Froholdt who forced the ball home from 3 yards for 1-1. 60' Vieites made amends as he tipped over a powerful Froholdt header from 7 yards to keep the scores level. Just a minute later he cleared Costa header from a yard and a half out at the back post albeit he was using Henrique as a step ladder and I'm not sure it would have counted had it got in. 83' The homes sides resistance was finally undone when Pietuszewski fired home from 11 yards, level with the edge of the far side of the six yard box into the far corner with the match winner for 2-1. Initally ruled out for offside VAR declared him to have been 1cm onside in the intial play.
xG 0.19 - 2.13
Total attempts 7 - 19
Shots on target 4 - 9
Big Chances 0 - 5
Big Chances Missed 0 - 4
Matchday 9 - Vitória (A) 5-0 L
The Guimarães side came into this game with one win from their opening game and 3 points off last season's Liga 2 champions. Humbling night for Mitchell van der Gaag and his island side. Hardly ideal preparation for Tuesday night's visit to the José Alvalade but they will have the benefit of an extra two days rest. In turn like Alverca last season, you'd expect Rui Borges to make wholesale changes to his entire starting XI.
31' A corner far side was flicked towards the back post by Borevković and eventually stopped and cleared by Tavares however to suggest it was unconvincing defending maybe the understatement of the weekend. Definately a sign of things to come for the visitors. 33' Two minutes later Jakupović forced an error from Correia in the final third and the visitors fortunate that his effort from 22 yards sailed over the bar. 37' Vitória finally took the lead when Jakupović smashed home a free kick from half a yard outside the area into the bottom left hand corner despite the four man wall plus draft excluder. Shades of Gyökeres goal against Braga.
47' Given their poor defensive showing in the first half it probably comes as no surprise to learn that the second goal was an Henrique own goal. A long ball was played in from the left of midfield into the box, the defender 16 yards out unaware his keeper was in a better position behind him ends up slicing into the net of his shin. Their night was still to get worse. 59' It took Camara two attempts to score the 3rd of the night. His initial effort was blocked inside the area but the ball broke into space just outside the edge of the fire side of the six yard box and he struck it with such venom over the head of Vieites that the keeper must have been glad it didn't connect with it because it may not have stayed on his shoulders.
64' A corner far side found it's way out to Tejón who smashed it against the bar from 20 yards at which point the islanders knew it wasn't to be their night if they'd not figured it out already with some truly piss poor defending. 75' Jakupović mugs off Correia for his second goal of the night turning the defender inside the box before slotting home from 13 yards. 89' The visitors dismal night was complete when Mosquera dressed appropriately in his pink kit rose like a salmon to power home a header from ten yards from a nearside corner. Marítimo's defence was so bad it made the lions effort against Lask on Wednesday night appear competent.
xG 1.78 - 0.52
Total attempts 16 - 10
Shots on target 8 - 2
Big chances 3 - 0
Big chances missed 2 - 0
In the markets
Sporting CP 1/4
Draw 9/2
Marítimo 7/1
Team News
Starting XI
Silva, Vagiannidis, Quaresma, Felicíssimo, Zekri, Simões, Andersen, Lima, Geny, Ioannidis and Derry.
Substitutes
Callai, Silva, Dias, Rodrigues, Nel, Tanlongo, Blopa, Couto, Cardoso, Taibo and Justo.
The mister hands a full debut to Zekri as he changes his entire starting XI from the shock loss on Sunday night. Like Alverca last year he puts his faith in a bench of only youngsters.
Marítimo Starting XI
Gonçalo Tabuaço, Igor Julião, Gábor Szalai, Roman Correia, Rafael Fernandes, Paulo Henrique, Rodrigo Andrade, Raphael Guzzo, Mons Bassouamina, Maurice Boakye and Simo Bouzaid.
Substitutes
Alfonso Pastor, Fran Vieites, Nilton Varela, Nathanael Ogbeta, Israel Ayuma, Ibrahim Alani, Samuel Bamba, Adrián Butzke, Bryan Limbombe and Martín Tejón.
The mister Mitchell van der Gaag has already admitted prior to kick off that their priority this season is survival in the Primeira Liga. Playing a weakened team off the back of Friday nights 5-0 thumping away to Vitória feels a bold move but an understandable one all the same. I always say goals in Portugal come at a premium especially for the smaller sides. Whilst nine players have found the net for Marítimo this season, that's nine players all of whom who've scored one league goal each after nine games and you don't have to be Rainman to know that's a solitary goal per game. Alverca, a year to the day played a weakened team and lost 5-1. The lions had 10 attempts on goal over the 90 minutes and still scored a goal for every two attempts.
The question above asked in the preview was what's the point in the Taça da Liga? It feels even more pointless when the newly promoted sides are basically saying, here's a note from my mum can I be excused from games tonight sir? For Rui Borges at least he can give game time to the second string and youngsters, have them acclimatise to the José Alvalade, rest some starters. Even then he'd probably be at home with his wife and family.
Despite two straight losses, an entire change to the starting XI the bookmaker lowered their hook and saw if anyone would bite. They moved the lions out fro1/4 to 4/9 and my maths brain is going you're giving me an extra 20%? Are you sure cause I'll happily take your money. You want to give me Ioannidis to score anytime at 13/10. I bit twice so if he has a shocker in front of goal and we lose it's all on me people's.
Look at some of the ages in our starting XI and on the bench tonight;
Rodrigues 18, Nel 21, Cardoso 20, Couto 20, Justo 22, Tanlongo 23, Blopa 19, Dias 21, Silva 20, Callai 22.
Zekri 18, Derry 19, Felicíssimo 19, Simões 19, Andersen 22, Lima 23.
Rui Silva must be feeling ancient at 32
Nice touching moment between Geny and the little girl who's the lions mascot for the evening. The visitors get us underway. Sporting once more in pink and white. The lions will attack right to left.
4 GOAL Sporting CP 1 CS Marítimo 0. Celebrations for Derry didn't last long. He must have been a good two yards offside before he finished from close range. In the buildup Geny had a shot blocked from 15 yards. Ioannidis collected the rebound and was trying to wriggle free of a crowd of defenders. He managed to find Derry who turned and finished but clearly offside.
6 Credit to the visitors who unlike the majority of teams against Sporting sit in a low block, they've kept a high line
9 Corner to the visitors near side is headed clear
10 Gone is the Dad shirt for Rui Borges, tonight we have a black Nike hoody which still doesn't look right on him but better than the shirt in fairness
11 Vaginannidis penalised for not taking a throw in quick enough and it's given the other way
11 Naughty from Edu who went through the back of Julião. Just the free kick awarded. Not sure he could have had any compliants had he been booked there
14 I am starting to understand why the lions chose not to play in this kit against Lens and Lask, it doesn't make for an easy watch. File that under MKC for major kit clash
15 One skill two many from Derry loses the ball out wide left. To be fair he got away with the first three maybe.
16 Julião fouls Derry on the near touch line. Geny with the free kick which ends up somewhere near the opposite touchline. Not the best curled delivery it's fair to say
18 Bouzaidi should have been booked for simulation in the corner. Threw himself to the floor with Zekri a good yard away
21 Lovely 180° turn from the youngster Zekri in midfield to lose his man. He had his shirt pulled and free kick awarded
21 BAR Geny's shot from 19 yards deflected up and to Ioannidis at the near post. The Greek had Lima in front of him seemingly with the goal at his mercy but he hit the bar from 2 yards
24 Phenomenal save from Silva to deny Julião's first time struck volley from wide right some 12 yards from the goal line. He was at full stretch to his right. Corner far side
24 Boakye header goes over from 10 yards
26 Wild from Geny who fires over from 20 yards
31 Noticable that Zekri is operating as a traditional full back rather than a wing back. Andersen is acting a screen to the defence and most of the play is flowing through him in the buildup
34 Sporting must have been in possession of the ball for a good two minutes and at one stage had managed to lose about 40 yards in space going backwards. Good work from Andersen under pressure to lose his man and the visitors must have been getting frustrated because one of them tried to stick one in on him but he rode the challenge. Eventually they found the counter and the first pass over hit and went to the keeper
36 When you look at the space available to the lions you have to wonder why there are no willing runners. Marítimo furthest players are just 6 yards from the half way line. Irankunda must be sat in the Gods thinking you've got to be kidding me
38 Fernandes booked for a foul on Zekri. What a run by the youngster. He beat three men before being hacked down 22 yards from goal
40 Derry bends the ball around the wall and hits the right hand post. That's the fourth time in two games the lions have hit that particular goal frame now
42 Lima with a lovely drag back and turn inside the area. He sees his shot from 7 yards come off the leg of Tabuaco and out for a corner near side. Should have scored
43 GOAL Sporting CP 1 Club Sport Marítimo 0. Jesse Derry's corner finds the head of Lima at the near post and finally at the third attempt tonight he gets his debut goal as a lion from 4 yards out
No additional time shown
Half time
Sporting CP 1 Club Sport Marítimo 0
Deserved lead for the lions at the interval. Not the most exciting of matches it's fair to suggest but they could be a couple of goals to the good had Derry paid more attention to where the last defender was and Lima taken his earlier effort from 2 yards. I will need to see that one again to work out just how it is he managed to hit the bar from such a close distance. Still no damage done for now. Rui Silva with the one incredible save. Not sure which was better the technique of Julião when he struck the ball of the save itself. Both were special.
They're showing the Lima effort and in fairness to him he just throws a leg at Ioannidis' pass and it may well have then come off the defender. I'd also completely forgotten about Derry's free kick onto the post as well. You'd maybe have liked one more goal in the bag before bringing on the youngsters in the second half but you can't have it all.
xG 0.83 - 0.19
Total attempts 7 - 3
Second Half
Neither side had anyone out at half time warming up. The lions back out first going through their warm up on the sides. Marítimo no where to be seen. Finally the visitors make their way back out a good two minutes later. The lions get us back underway. No changes from either side. Credit to the man in the middle who's had a much better game than the referee we had on Sunday night.
47 I don't know why but I thought the pitch looked in better conditon on Sunday night, it's back to looking quite brown in places
48 Quaresma concedes a free kick for a foul on Henrique. Szalai penalised for a foul inside the box
49 Correia can only pull Ioannidis down in the centre and free kick awarded. The Greek needs to do the same a further 24 yards up the pitch closer to their area
51 Ioannidis is clearly on my wavelength as he went down a yard outside the box but the referee wasn't interested much to the Greek's digust as he remonstrates with the referee
52 Replay shows the Greek had a point as well. The defender had so much of his shirt you could claim he was trying to rob him for it to add to his collection
54 Sporting just starting to ascert their dominance. Simões pulling the strings in midfield. Lima tries to cut the ball back inside the area, knocked out for a corner near side
55 Not sure what that was from Andersen. Lets call it a shot from 14 yards which went past the left hand post
56 Quaremsa booked for a foul on Boakye a yard outside the right hand side of the box
57 Free kick just on the corner of the far side of the 18 yard box for the visitors. After waiting a minute Henrique's attempt looks like it just touched the foot of another Marítimo player but into the arms of Silva
58 ➡️⬅️ Butzke on for Bassouamina
59 Geny down holding his face. The referee finally stopped play. That looked quite deliberate on the part of the opposition player who body checked the winger off the ball
60 The lions temporarily down to ten men as Geny makes his way to the side right ear still ringing
62 Finally Geny back on. I find that the most bizarre rule in football. An opponent can deliberately injure one of your players and you suffer the indignity of going down to ten men because of it
63 Andersen taking no prisoners in midfield concedes a free kick 42 yards from goal
65 Geny bundled over in the box by Correia with a shove. Don't ask me how that's not a penalty because I have no idea
67 Ioannidis rounds Tabuaco and looks to have put the lions 2-0 up but sees his goalbound effort from 8 yards cleared off the line by Correia
68 Big save from Rui Silva again to deny Julião whose effort was heading into the rop right hand corner. Corner visitors far side
69 Simões blocks a shot from 10 yards from Szalai
70 GOAL Sporting CP 2 Club Sport Marítimo 0. Long range effort from Vigiannidis was initially saved by Tabuaco. Lima was following up and headed straight at the keeper. The ball fell loose when the defender took it out his keepers hands and Lima bundled it over the line from 2 yards
71 ➡️⬅️ Andrade for Alani
72 ➡️⬅️ Zekri and Derry off for Cardoso and Dias
75 Maritimo appeal for a handball inside the area referee not interested
77 ➡️⬅️ Huge round of applause for Lima as he leaves to be replaced by Mauro Couto
81 Good play from Geny who threaded the ball into the box for Couto to chase. The youngsters attempted cutback looped up into the arms of Tabuaco and the danger passed
82 Both sides have two men stood ready to come on by the looks of things
83 Lovely from Vagiannidis twice in the corner to play himself out of trouble
83 ➡️⬅️ Bamba for Bouzaidi and Ayuma for Guzzo
84 ➡️⬅️ Ioannidis and Simões for Justo and Nel. There goes my Ioannidis anytime money. Bookmakers 1 Sex, Drugs and Araújo 0
89 GOAL Sporting CP 2 Club Sport Marítimo 1. Quaresma at fault as he failed to realise Butzke was behind him unmarked and ran towards the danger in the centre of the lions area. The forward headed home unmarked. That being said however he doesn't have eyes in the back of his head and should expect Vagiannidis to have been picking up the man behind.
Plus three shown
+2 Huge cheer for Dias as he clears for a throw in far side with a well timed tackle
+3 Fucking hell. Rui Silva turns behind Tejón's goalbound effort from 20 yards for a corner near side. Tabuaco comes up for the corner. Suspicion it may not have been on target but better to be safe than sorry
+3 Silva sees a shot fired straight at him by Alani
+4 Confusion as we're still playing. I think the fans thought that was it. It is now
Full time
Sporting CP 2 Club Sport Marítimo 1
The final word
In the end it was a little harder than it needed to be as Eduardo Quaresma did his best Jenny Agutter impression going Walkabout in the box with less than 20 seconds of the 90 to play. Butzke probably couldn't believe his good fortune but it didn't matter, the lions through to the next round. Shame for Rui Silva not to pick up a clean sheet because he fully deserved it for a fantastic display in between the posts. At the other end the posts did an equally great job for the second straight game and must be ahead of Callai in the pecking order on that type of form. Tabuaco not as convincing it has to be said.
Last season Sporting dispatched Alverca 5-1 and to be fair had they not kept finding the goalposts they could well have done the same here tonight. The statistics make it seem closer than it felt. Both sides with 12 attempts and 6 on target. The key indicator the big chances with 6 to just 1, the lions missing 4 whilst Marítimo took their one. xG 1.86 to 0.93.
Zekri impressed on his full debut. A first team debut off the bench for Paulo Cardoso and apparentlyJusto who I thought had appeared before. Minutes for Dias, Couto, Nel and Justo. They may not have had a massive impact coming off the bench but I'd very much argue the case that it's all part of the learning process and pathway to the first team and this is a club where that is incredibly well defined for them so they all just need to keep up their levels in Liga 2. Again for those who didn't feature like Rodrigues who was included in the matchday squad for the first time it's another tick in their development boxes.
The one thing I felt was missing from that performance was pace which given we had Geny out wide right and acres of space to run into feels a little baffling. Mind you he did have several lumps taken out of him again at various points during the game. Jesse Derry is clearly a different type of winger to Irankunda. No doubting the ability of either player on the ball but the Australian has that natural burst of pace where Derry seems to be intent on getting his step count up for the day. Still he is prepared to take on his man and there's something about him. I'm not sure how much substance exactly only time will tell and come next season he'll be somewhere else anyway. Knowing Chelsea that will be Strasbourg.
I've deliberately kept offline since Sunday as much as possible to avoid the inevitable noise from certain sections of the fanbase calling for Rui Borges head on a plate. As I wrote Sunday after the final whistle this league is so unforgiving because in any other league his record would be lauded. Some fans have short memories and latch onto the most ridiculous of statistics as if they're critical markers. This one about losing the lead in games. Well fuck a doodle do if some miss the first obvious fact which is you had to have taken the lead in all those games in the first place. I mean it's stating the fucking obvious which I hate to do because I was brought up not to do it but sometimes it does need saying. Other than in Europe on the biggest stage do you rarely see his side concede the first goal. Yet you'd think Amorim's sides never went behind to the likes of lowly Olivais in the Taça de Portugal. What were they a fifth tier side? Two nil down to Atalanta and had they not taken the foot off our necks it could have been a glut of goals. 2-0 down to Braga in his last game. There's equally as many examples of them conceding equalisers during his tenure to boot. You wouldn't have to go far to find one in the 2024/25 season when they were 2-0 up against Vizela on the opening day only to then find themselves at 2-2. It happens at every fucking club. Be careful what you wish for because if he goes the blueprint is the same and that's player development and ensuring the financial future of the club. Varandas sees himself as a custodian as much as anything else and in my book that's not a bad thing. I know our title wins have coincided with a massive drop off in form from Porto and Benfica. Porto got the benefit last season with the drop off of both Sporting and Benfica. That's Portuguese football. You can either figure it out or spend your life being miserable online.
If you go through every season of these posts you'll find one where I do a run down of where our signings come from. These are signings from clubs where you'd believe some degree of scouting must have gone on because they're certainly not obvious signings a lot of the time. Yes there's been growing pains this season, I'm not blind or arguing that there hasn't been but I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'd still rather watch this side than FC Porto under Farioli. There's a wonderful irony that in the opening weeks there was panic at the back whereas against LASK and Académico it was over confidence that probably cost them and they ended up looking lackadaisical.
I'm not trying to be a football analyst, its jolly hard enough trying to do a minute by minute let alone a full game breakdown at the same time. If I've not picked it up in real time or a replay then I've not got it somewhere else that I can watch phases of play back. But I note enough that's going on. Académico score their two goals because Fresneda and Araújo were caught out of position. So tonight you saw what I'd call traditional full back performances from Zerki and Vagiannidis. That's not to say they didn't cross the halfway line. It's the Greeks initial shot that led to the second goal and Zekri had the run from midfield which resulted in the free kick that Derry struck the post with at the end of the first half. Yet Borges is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't because whilst Quaresma does go towards the ball for their goal he is one of two centre backs and he is in the centre. He's not got eyes in the back of his head and he has every right to expect Vagiannidis to be in position to deal with Butzke but is nowhere to be seen. That's not Borges fault that's on the players out on the pitch not following their instructions and being where they need to be.
What sort of person do you want to be in life? If you want to be a moany cunt fine, but those who talk loudest rarely talk articulately on any level. It's all self serving bollocks quite frankly. Thankfully we're not at a precipice like Alcochete where fans self entitlement turns into something far more sinister. We're still at the booing and Morris Dancing with the hankies like people are rehearsing for the Christmas fucking panto phase. It's all self serving. None of it is of any benefit to the team especially on a night where you've won and should have been out of sight had they taken all their chances. Six Opta defined big chances. No side created more in Portugal last season. No side missed more either. That's what happens when you sell the best goalscoring forward that Portugal has seen in the last 100 years. Think of Rui Borges as a mechanic doing a massive engine rebuild. These things take time and patience something in short supply in Lisboa of late.
I personally don't think any of the starting XI had a bad game. I'd give them all a minimum 7 out of 10. Some performances maybe not completely effective but that doesn't equal a bad performance. Ioannidis had limited service but had one cleared off the line and could have had an assist when Lima hit the bar. Derry claimed the assist a minute later and hit the post so he's contributed. Vagiannidis apart from the goal played well and his shot leads to the second goal. Simões had a couple of decent runs with the ball in the centre. Geny's shooting was wayward but he caused enough issues for them to kick lumps out of him. So plenty of positives if you're that way inclined.
So four votes for man of the match. I hate going goalkeepers but Rui Silva was superb tonight and made some huge saves and you could see he was buzzing and that's what he needed - competition for his place to make him fight. Vote two to Andersen who was at the heart of everything and did a great job screening the defence. Impressive display and shades of Hjulmand which is high praise. Vote three goes to Zekri who lets face it had some huge boots to fill in the absence of Araújo. As I've said he was tasked with a different role but he did superbly and that run from midfield similar to his one for the under 19s only this time he doesn't get the chance to lay the ball off and I'd loved to have found out what he had up his sleeve had he not been taken out. Let's not get carried away but he looks like he's got something about him. Vote four could only be Pedro Lima who seems to be the forgotten summer signing. Anytime he has played limited minutes he's come really close to scoring and sometimes he's only played between three and five minutes so for me it's no surprise to see him on the scoresheet. Could have had a matchball in the end as well. Deserved his ovation when he left the field. I've given Rui Silva a vote in the four but I'm loath to give it to a keeper so Pedro Lima is my man of the match.
Our bonkers schedule continues on Friday when we face Casa Pia meaning we'll have player Sunday, Tuesday, Friday. Then it's London on Tuesday and I think international break or maybe it's Moreirense then the break. No wonder the players can't get a rhythm right now after the extended break at the start of the month.
