William highlights his team's battling spirit

William Carvalho netted a decisive penalty in Sporting's hard-earned win over Belenenses this Monday evening. Speaking with the press at the final whistle, the Alvalade midfielder highlighted his team's persistence.

“It was a hard game, because Belenenses defended well. When you play against eleven players who all pack into their own half it is tough, but we did well and Belenenses didn't have any chances", opened William, going on to comment on the penalty decision: "From what I saw, it looked like Tonel touched the ball with his hand."

While Sporting have tallied 29 from a possible 33 points so far this season, William was keen to keep his side's feet firmly on the ground. "There is still a lot of football to play and we just have to focus on ourselves. FC Porto and Benfica have great sides", added the stand-in skipper, before finishing on how his contract talks are progressing: "I have spoken with the president and I hope to see everything sorted as soon as possible. It will be easy."

Sporting battle to victory over Belenenses with a late penalty

Sporting battled to another three points this Monday night, beating Belenenses 1-0 on Liga NOS matchday 11. Jorge Jesus' side dominated from start to finish, but it took a penalty in added-time to finally define to the result.

Bouyed by a thunderous performance in the Europa Leauge in Moscow last Thursday and encouraged by an enthusiastic crowd, the team from Alvalade soon had Belenenses on the back foot. After just four minutes Montero picked out Bryan Ruiz high up the pitch for the Costa Rican to find a yard of space and put a ball across the edge of the box, but Adrien's shot was blocked by the visiting defence. Montero was again the instigator in the next move forward, this time finding Slimani, but the Algerian was beaten to the ball by the on rushing Hugo Ventura.

Belenenses could do little but bunker down under the Alvalade attacking display and on 18 minutes Montero came close to opening the scoring, when the Colombian broke away from his marker at the edge of the box to fire a shot towards goal that Hugo Ventura turned away with an outstretched save.

Although surely an emotional return to Alvalade for Ricardo Sá Pinto, the Sporting legend did a fine job of setting his team out defensively. While Jesus' side continued to move the ball around freely, a penetrating pass in the final third was lacking and it wasn't long before efforts from range began to gain a certain appeal. William Carvalho fired one over in the 36th minute, before Bryan Ruiz's genius saw the Alvalade forward ghost past various defenders and get a shot away that was turned for a corner by the Belenenses keeper.

The second-half got underway with another Sporting attempt on goal, this time with Slimani uncharacteristically missing the target with a header. The Alvalade stands were craving a goal, but neither Montero or Jonathan Silva were able to find the back of the net. With impatience starting to creep in, Hugo Ventura was finally shown a yellow card for taking an excessive amount of time to put the ball back into play.

Again Montero and Jonathan Silva created chances to take a lead, this time with the Argentinean picking out Montero with a spraying pass that the Colombian was unable to convert on .

Jesus introduced Gelson Martins and Matheus Pereira into the action and the game continued one-way, but a goal was proving near impossible to come by. Beneneses were completely unable to materialise any sort of danger for Rui Patrício's goal, but their well organised defensive style kept them in with a chance of some unlikely points as the clock ticked over. On 75 minutes Matheus Pereira burst into the box, but his shot ended up in the wrong side of the side netting.

On 82 minutes Belenenses had possibly their best chance of the ninety, when Luís Leal instigated a counter-attacking move, but the final product ended up wide of Rui Patrício's goal. Two minutes later the recently introduced Tanaka found Slimani, but the Algerian's header lacked power and was smothered by Hugo Ventura.

With dropped points looking all but inevitable, the evening's referee found time to show yellow to Slimani and see him suspended as a result from the next match. However, the best certainly was kept until last, when Tonel bafflingly cut out a ball with his hand to award Sporting a penalty that William Carvalho calmly slotted to seal the win.

Jorge Jesus' thoughts ahead of Sporting's hosting of Beleneness

Speaking ahead of Sporting's Monday night hosting of Belenenses, Jorge Jesus alerted to the danger of any Liga NOS encounter, with this week's fixture also having the extra emotion of being a Lisbon derby.

“Sporting-Belenenses is a derby, so it is never easy. Belenenses are a quality side with good payers and they are having a good start to the season, like us. We are ready for the problems they can cause us, especially with how they will probably set out in defence. We will have to be creative to break down their defence, which is normal when teams visit us. It really won't be that different to things we have already faced this season", commented the Alvalade boss, going on to speak about his time with the club so far.

“Six months? Well it has only been four months of competition. In terms of our performances, things have been happening quicker than we expected, but that is down to the players, their quality and their passion for Sporting. We are doing well, but we still haven't played a third of the season yet and the only thing we have won is the Super Cup. We have built a sense of pride for the fans and we want that to keep growing", said Jesus, before revealing that Naldo, Bruno Paulista and William have recovered and could be available tomorrow, while Schelotto “is still finding his physical and tactical form”.

With a tricky fixture also awaiting one of Sporting's direct rivals, Jesus proved keen to keep the focus on his own side's task: "We have to focus on our match. What matters is that we do better than our opposition, so we have to keep our focus and just worry about ourselves."

Sporting-Belenenses will kick off at 19h00 on Monday the 30th of November, in Estádio José Alvalade.

Artur Soares Dias named for Liga NOS matchday 11

Artur Soares Dias, 36, from the Porto Football Association, has been named to take charge of the Liga NOS matchday 11 encounter between Sporting and Belenenses.

Rui Licínio and Bruno Rodrigues will act as linesmen.

This will be the second time Soares Dias officiates over a Sporting match this season, following the matchday 6 draw against Boavista.

Sporting-Belenenses will kick-off at 19h00 on Monday the 30th of November, in Estádio José Alvalade.

Goal against Vitória SC in Alvalade most voted

Islam Slimani's first strike against Vitória SC was been named as the Liga NOS Goal of the Month for October. The giant Algerian went on to score a hattrick in the fixture, with Sporting coming away 5-1 winners.

Slimani is in unstoppable form this so far this season, having scored 6 goals in the last 6 matches.

Ticket information for Liga NOS matchday 11

Tickets for Liga NOS matchday 11, between Sporting and Belenenses, will go on sale on Thursday the 19th of November as follows:

STAND A
Central – 20€ for Members and 30€ for fans
Lateral – 15€ for Members and 25€ for fans
Goal End – 10€ for Members and 20€ for fans

STAND B
Central – 15€ for Members and 20€ for fans
Lateral – 10€ for Members and 15€ for fans
Goal End – 7€ for Members and 12€ for fans
Under-23/ Senior – 7€ for Members
Under-11 – 3.5€ for Members

Family Ticket – 21€ (3 people) and 25€ (4 people)

Algerian's first strike against V. Guimarães in the running

Slimani's first goal against V. Guimarães, which saw him go on to grab a hattrick in a 5-1 win, is up for nomination for the Liga NOS Samsung Goal of the Month.

You can vote for the Alvalade star at www.partilhamosfutebol.com/votacao.

Fredy Montero instrumental in late goal against Arouca

"I picked up a pass from Bryan (Ruiz) and I tried to shoot, but Slimani scored for us and it gave us an important three points", said Montero after Sporting's win in Arouca this Sunday night.

For the Colombian striker, the final result was all down to hard work being put in on the training pitch: "We are ready for this kind of game and when we can't play well we have to try as hard as we can, which is what we did. Champions are made like this. We had a lot of possession and it wasn't enough, but we scored in the end. The coach asked me to look for space, because that is what we were missing. We won and that is the most important thing."

Jorge Jesus' thoughts on Sunday's win in Arouca

Sporting had to fight hard for the three points on Sunday night, but that was exactly what Jorge Jesus was expecting in what has proven to be a tricky away trip for even the top sides this season.

“We knew it would be difficult. In nine games, Arouca had only lost against FC Porto and they had already taken three points off a team fighting for the title. They are a really well organised team defensively and it isn't easy to score against them. We had to show the mentality of a champion, as well as technical and tactical quality. We had to show heart in the 50-50 balls, which is what we did in the second-half", opened the Alvalade boss in post-match interview, continuing: “We had to show a lot of attitude in the direct confrontations, because Arouca are really aggressive. We didn't have a lot of chances, but we did make some that were easy to finish and we had Arouca under control when they did attack. The most important thing is that we won and that we got the reward for carrying on even with ten men. The lads deserved the win tonight."

Jorge Jesus went on to explain what he asked of his players at half-time and why he introduced Esgaio in place of Jefferson: "At half-time we had to change some things in attack. Arouca are really organised so we couldn't find space for our lads to carry the ball forward. We had to change some positioning and it worked better in the second-half, which was also because Arouca didn't show the same intensity in defence because they were getting tired. Jefferson felt a bit of discomfort at the end of the first-half and I didn't want to aggravate it, so I was forced to being him off. Funnily enough Esgaio was more dynamic down the wing than Jefferson.”

Slimani scores at the death to keep Sporting five points clear

Sporting came away from the Arouca Municipal Stadium with a hard-earned three points this Sunday night, courtesy of a 90th minute strike form Slimani.

It was by no means an easy night's work for the team from Alvalade and right from the off it was made clear that Arouca were looking for upset against a Sporting team completely different to the one that lost in Albania during the week. With both outfits battling hard for possession, there was little to report in the opening 10 minutes other than a cross from João Pereira that the home keeper comfortably plucked out of the air.

Although pegging Arouca back into their own half, Sporting struggled to create chances in the limited space offered up by the hosts, who were happy to sit back and wait for opportunities to break forward. Despite Sporting's dominating pressure, the first shot didn't actually come until the 22nd minute, when João Mário fired straight at the keeper.

With steady build-up play doing little to create chances, Sporting switched to route one, using Slimani as a target man to add extra depth in attack. The change did the trick and João Pereira was able to pick out Teo Gutiérrez in a yard of space down the right, before the Colombian set up Slimani in the 18-yard box, but the big Algerian scuffed his shot. After Roberto pulled a stop out of  Rui Patrício, João Pereira was again the protagonist going forward, finding Teo Gutiérrez for a shot that ended up wide of the target.

It wasn't until near half-time that Sporting managed to string together more clear opportunities, when João Mário floated a ball into the area that Paulo Oliveira headed down and towards goal, only for Bracali to parry over his crossbar with a superb instinctive save. Next to try his luck was Adrien after being picked out by Jefferson, but the Alvalade skipper's header ended up the wrong side of the post.

The second-half got underway where the first had left off, with both sides scrapping for possession in the Arouca midfield. Finding space in the 18-yard box was proving particularly challenging and Sporting soon resorted to efforts from range. João Mário pinged a shot goalward in the 53rd minute, but the final product ended up over the bar. Arouca responded through Ivo Rodrigues from a free-kick, but the eventual attempt on goal did little to trouble Rui Patrício. In response, Bryan Ruiz pulled a cross out of nowhere, but Slimani arrived just a second too late to convert.

Two minutes from time Esgaio crossed into the heart of the box for Montero, but the Colombian was unable to control his first touch and the chance went wanting. Just as it looked to be all over, the game was given a sudden injection of drama, when the Arouca coach Lito Vidigal actually walked into the pitch to complain to the referee (not for the first time over the course of the evening). In response Naldo pushed Vidigal back into touch, before the Arouca coach somehow ended up on the floor. In stepped referee Cosme Machado to show red to both.

A man down and with just seconds remaining, Bryan Ruiz found Montero in the box and the Sporting striker fired a shot against Hugo Basto, but Slimani picked up the rebound and managed to slot past Bracali to secure a well-earned three points that keep Sporting five points clear at the top of the table.