Holders out of the Portuguese Cup

With 99 minutes on the clock, Slimani is on-side and latches onto a pass to make it 4-3 to Sporting, only to see his goal wrongly ruled out. This Wednesday night's Portuguese Cup trip to Braga will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, with the match's refereeing weighting heavily on the final result. Despite the debatable officiating, it was also a highly entertaining game of football, with both teams putting on a tactical master class packed full of goals. At the final whistle, Braga edged it and revenged last year's final with what was amazingly only Sporting's first domestic defeat this season.

The opening exchanges were the starting gun for the encounter that could develop in the Braga Municipal Stadium, with both sides pushing the intensity and pace going forward. After just two minutes João Mário forced a save out of Matheus, before his brother Wilson Eduardo responded down the other end with a shot that ended up wide of the mark. Sporting were first to tally on the scoreboard, when Bryan Ruiz made the most of a hashed clearance in the 10th minute to make it 1-0.

The placement of Aquilani next to William and Adrien in the middle of the park added an extra spark to Sporting's possession recovery and passing and it was the Italian himself who could have doubled his side's lead, but Matheus stood firm. A minute after the half-hour mark, it was Baiano who was unable to convert on a good chance. The encounter looked to be heading for the break after a calm first-half, but Rafa's apparent foul on William was waved away and Wilson Eduardo was free to race and beat the isolated Rui Patrício three minutes before the whistle.

The second-half started with another blistering effort by Ruiz, but this time Matheus was able to stop the Costa Rican. In response, Alan managed to convert on a cross from Marcelo Goiano down the left to make it 2-1 in favour of Braga. Sporting needed just five minutes to rally back up the other end and Slimani equalised after connecting with an Aquiliani cross. Turning the result on its head for the third time in the match, William popped up at the edge of the area to fire a shot into the top corner and put Sporting back into the lead.

The game looked resolved, but seven minutes from time Marcelo Goiano drifted in from the left to beat Rui Patrício against the run of play. Tired legs kicked in as the game moved into extra-time that was essentially decided by a just a couple of forays forward.

Jorge Jesus with the press ahead of tomorrow's visit to Braga

Jorge Jesus was with the press in the Estádio José Alvalade Auditorium this Tuesday afternoon to speak about this week's Portuguese Cup visit to Braga.

“We Know that this is a cup match with very specific characteristics. No points can be won and it will be decided on the day. In my opinion, Sp. Braga is the team closest to the big three in terms of quality. We know that this will be a difficult match because of of the quality of their players and because they have a good coach, but we are confident", affirmed the Alvalade boss, adding: "The fact that we will travel to Braga means that we won't have time to prepare for the match. We have just focused on recovery like Braga have, who also played on Sunday. The most important thing is that luckily we haven't picked up any problems, with the exception of Teo who we already knew about. It will be a hard game and we will suffer a lot, because Sp. Braga will make life difficult for our defence."

In parallel, Jorge Jesus responded to a question on complaints being made by Sporting's rivals about match refereeing, while highlighting that Sporting are top of the league on merit: Look, the Refereeing Council is the same, the president who picks the referees is the name. What is changed is that Sporting is in first and people aren't used to it. That is all that has changed, everything else is the same. Nobody can take credit away from us for what we have done in every competition. We won the first trophy this season and we are at the top of the league with 11 wins and 2 draws in 13 matches. Now we are playing in the cup again, where we have already beaten one of our rivals and we will face the same team we did last season in the final. The people who are speculating are doing so because they were not expecting a strong Sporting at the top of the league."

Sp. Braga-Sporting will get underway at 20h00 on Wednesday the 16th of December, in the Braga Municipal Stadium.

Portuguese Cup visit to Braga

Sporting Clube de Portugal would like to release the following information for Wednesday the 16th of December's Portuguese Cup visit to Braga:

- Sporting fans leaving from Lisbon should meet at Estádio José Alvalade at 13h00.

- Preparations have been made for Sporting fans to meet at the Decathlon next to the stadium at 18h00.