Os Leões beat SC Braga 5-0 at home in the Taça da Liga

Sporting Clube de Portugal booked their ticket for the Final Four of the Taça da Liga by thrashing SC Braga 5-0 at the Estádio José Alvalade in the quarter finals.

Having come through the group stage with a total of three wins, 13 goals scored and zero conceded, Sporting CP had been impressive in the competition to date. For the first knockout game, coach Rúben Amorim made four changes to the starting lineup, bringing in goalkeeper Antonio Adán, Nuno Santos, Pedro Gonçalves and Marcus Edwards. Rochinha, meanwhile, was left out due to flu.

In what was perhaps their best first half played this season, Sporting CP surprised Braga by taking a 2-0 lead very early on. Just 4 minutes in, Gonçalo Inácio appeared in the area to finish off a flick by Paulinho to the near post off a corner, and on 8 minutes Paulinho himself finished off a pass from Trincão. It was his sixth goal in the last four games in the Taça da Liga.

In the 18th minute, Edwards stole the ball from Tormena, broke into the area and was brought down by the defence. The resulting penalty was dispatched by Pedro Gonçalves for his ninth goal this season.

Half an hour into the game, Gonçalves had everything in his favour to score again, but had his shot blocked by a defender. Exactly the same thing would happen shortly afterwards to Paulinho.

Sporting CP scored two more goals in the final stretch of the first half, as first Trincão finished off a Nuno Santos cross from the left, then Edwards converted a second penalty.

With the team 5-0 up at the interval, Sporting CP played with a lower block after the restart, but always with an eye on quick transitions to score the sixth goal of the night.

In the 71st minute, Amorim made his first moves. Dário Essugo and Jovane Cabral, as well as Ricardo Esgaio and Arthur Gomes, came on in the final stretch, as did Sotiris Alexandropoulos. Sporadic chances had occurred during the second half, but there were no further goals and the game ended 5-0.

Os Leões, who achieved their sixth consecutive victory and consolidated their best run of the season, will play in the Final Four of the Taça da Liga in Leiria from January 24-28th, against the winners of Moreirense FC vs. FC Arouca. Before that, and after a break for the Christmas holidays, Liga Portugal returns for the last game of 2022, with a home match against FC Paços de Ferreira on December 29th.

Sporting CP: Antonio Adán [GK], Matheus Reis, Sebastián Coates [C], Gonçalo Inácio, Pedro Porro (Ricardo Esgaio, 76'), Manuel Ugarte (Dário Essugo, 71'), Pedro Gonçalves, Nuno Santos, Francisco Trincão ( Arthur Gomes, 76'), Marcus Edwards (Sotiris Alexandropoulos, 86') and Paulinho (Jovane Cabral, 71').