The team keep up their perfect start to the campaign

In the Liga Portugal Matchday 5 opener, Sporting Clube de Portugal beat FC Arouca 0-3, extending their perfect record at the start of the season. The attacking trident of Pedro Gonçalves, Viktor Gyökeres and Francisco Trincão were all on the scoresheet.

Coach Rúben Amorim made five changes to his starting XI from the victory against FC Porto: addition to Franco Israel playing in goal due to Vladan Kovačević's injury, Zeno Debast, Matheus Reis, Nuno Santos and Daniel Bragança were also used from the beginning, taking replacing Eduardo Quaresma, Ousmane Diomande, Geny Catamo and Hidemasa Morita as they were rotated to the bench.

FC Arouca started the game in 14th place, with only one win at the start of the campaign, at home on the third matchday against CD Nacional.

The home team, coached by Gonzalo García, provided the first danger in the early stages of the match: Jason, who got in behind the defence, shot over the crossbar.

Soon after, Sporting CP had their opening chance, as Gyökeres' first shot was unsuccessful.

In the tenth minute, with the team increasingly settled in the opposition half, goalkeeper Nico Mantl got down to intercept a promising low cross from Bragança.

Sporting CP tried to create space in between the compact lines formed by FC Arouca, and started to find it on the left flank. A cross found Gonçalves alone in the area, but the No. 8 missed his shot and Quenda, on the follow-up, had his effort blocked. Likewise, Gyökeres' powerful individual move was also denied.

Second time around, Gonçalves was once again in position, and made no mistake to convert in the 24th minute. It began with a through ball to the striker, then Quenda and Trincão built the move on the right wing and found him in the six-yard box to make it 0-1.

His fifth goal of the season, the fourth in Liga Portugal, was followed up by another shot over the top.

Before halftime, FC Arouca goalkeeper Mantl made saves from Bragança and Gonçalo Inácio. Trincão also had a penalty appeal waved away, and the scoreline at the interval remained 0-1

Just like at the start of the first half, FC Arouca also had the first chance of the second half, this time with the newly introduced Trezza. Franco Israel made a comfortable first save of the game.

The response was not long in coming and Nuno Santos shot venomously, with a hit also caught by the opposition goalkeeper.

The home team tried get back into the game, although without Sporting CP always maintained a very high press. They made the most of the increasing space behind the defence, and nearly extended their lead through an own goal, eventually disallowed by VAR for offside.

A penalty kick was then given in favour of Sporting CP, due to a handball inside the area by midfielder Fukui. Gyökeres stepped up and converted the spot kick to make the lead more comfortable in the 73rd minute.

Amorim then made the first changes with two double substitutions separated by a few minutes: Geny, Diomande, Morita and new signing Maxi Araújo came on, the latter making his debut.

Sporting CP continued to create danger and, after two moves by Debast and Maxi Araújo that went astray, they made it 0-3 in style. Trincão cut in from the right, then finished low to kill off the game.

On Tuesday, Sporting CP will make their debut in the UEFA Champions League against French side Lille OSC, followed by a home game against newly promoted AVS in Liga Portugal.

Sporting CP: Franco Israel [GK], Geovany Quenda (Maxi Araújo, 78’), Zeno Debast, Gonçalo Inácio, Matheus Reis (Ousmane Diomande, 74’), Nuno Santos (Geny Catamo, 74’), Morten Hjulmand [C] (Hidemasa Morita, 78’), Daniel Braganca, Pedro Gonçalves, Francisco Trincao (Marcus Edwards, 83’), Viktor Gyökeres.