Sporting CP wins 'o Clássico'
31 Aug, 2024
The team dominate in a 2-0 victory at home
In the first Liga Portugal 'Clássico' of the season, Sporting Clube de Portugal beat FC Porto 2-0 at the Estádio José Alvalade, keeping their 100% record in the competition this season and taking them to 12 points. The goals for Os Leões came from Viktor Gyökeres and Geny Catamo in the final stretch.
The match also saw the debut of the new lighting system at the stadium and was preceded by a minute's silence in tribute to the members of the GNR emergency team who died on Friday in a helicopter accident in the Douro River, as well as to the late coach Sven-Göran Eriksson.
The opening minutes of the game saw caution and a lack of spaces to exploit, and the first dangerous move came after the quarter-hour, as FC Porto's Vasco Sousa went forward. However, Sporting CP reacted immediately and almost broke the deadlock from a move in which Pedro Gonçalves passed to Francisco Trincão. The latter had his effort saved by Zé Pedro.
This was the starting point for Sporting CP's growing dominance, as they won duels in the middle of the field, controlled the offensive flow of the match and allowed practically nothing to FC Porto during the first half – bar a shot by Galeno that was blocked by Kovačević.
Sporting CP had several chances, such as when Gyökeres struck into the side netting, Trincão popped up twice in an excellent position in the heart of the area, but missed the target on both occasions, and Gonçalves had his shot deflected wide from close range.
Despite their clear superiority, Rubén Amorim's men could not convert their chances, and went into the break level with their expected title rivals.
At the interval, in which the women's team had a tribute paid to them on the pitch for winning the Super Taça, the script was similar. Gyökeres had an opportunity off a cutback from Geny Catamo, but his shot was blocked on the goalline by Alan Varela.
An FC Porto opportunity for Galeno was saved by Kovačević, before Sporting CP finally got their reward: In the 72nd minute, Gyökeres was awarded a clear penalty and, from the spot, made no mistake, finally opening the scoring.
The deserved goal made FC Porto advance their lines in search of an equaliser, but they were never able to really trouble Kovačević.
Until the end, Sporting CP were always the more dangerous of the two teams and, in the third minute of added time, Geny Catamo confirmed the win by making it 2-0 with a beautiful strike.8
After the international break, Sporting CP play on September 13th, away to FC Arouca.
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Sporting CP: Vladan Kovačević [GR], Geny Catamo, Eduardo Quaresma (Zeno Debast, 79’), Ousmane Diomande, Gonçalo Inácio, Geny Catamo (Matheus Reis, 79’), Hidemasa Morita, Morten Hjulmand [C] (Daniel Bragança, 86’), Francisco Trincão (Nuno Santos, 90’), Pedro Gonçalves e Viktor Gyökeres.
