João Pereira won for the first time in the Portugal League and Sporting returned to winning ways this Saturday, against Boavista (3-2), holding the lead in the championship. Despite the good signs in part of the match, the lion trembled against a Panther in difficulties, but who made a living in Alvalade and responded to goals from Gyökeres (23′) and Trincão (49′ and 66′) with goals from Bozeník (43′) and Bruno Onyemaechi (58′). There is still a lot of work ahead, but these three points were enough to avoid a possible checkmate.
Sporting tried to return to the past in this reception to Boavista. Not to a bad past, although the most recent results take us back to those times, but to a happy past, with Coates, for example, who was in the Alvalade stands to try to help convey a positive aura to a club that seemed to have everything to a historic time where suddenly everything is missing and unforeseen events keep appearing. St. Juste, for example, was left out with the flu, which led Debast to return to the eleven and Eduardo Quaresma to return after the marks brought from Belgium.
But is it really fair to talk about Sporting’s problems when on the other side there is a Boavista with many more reasons to give up? Bacci’s team has been an example of perseverance in the Portugal League and even without the same weapons as their rivals in the fight for maintenance, they brought the possible strategy to Alvalade, with the aim of taking advantage of the bad phase and restlessness of the still championship leader.
It cannot be said that the plan worked at an early stage of the match. For about 30 minutes, it looked like Sporting from the first phase of the season (a month ago, therefore). Even without Gyökeres’ confidence at times and with Trincão still missing, the movements of João Pereira’s team and the intensity brought to the Alvalade pitch showed that the squad wanted to change the course of events, even when the ball hit César, goalkeeper checkered who denied Gyökeres the goal in the first few minutes.
With dynamics on the left, where Quenda and Maxi Araújo were once again, but where young João Simões, starter for the second time in a row, also passed several times, Sporting had Boavista on the ropes and the result of that pressure was the Gyökeres’ return to running goals. Pedro Gomes made a short delay for César and the Swede intercepted the ball and tapped in to open the scoring (23′).
Sporting’s advantage and good half hour returned enthusiasm to the Alvalade stands and this motivation was felt on the field. Dynamic, the Leonine team began to collect goal chances, but as soon as the waste began to become evident – Gyökeres had two chances to score twice – and Boavista spent a few minutes in the opponent’s field, uneasiness once again took over the team. lionwho ended up going into the break at a disadvantage.
João Pereira and Franco Israel had already pointed out the problem in Brugge, but the solution has not yet been found. Salvador Agra had space and found the head of Bozeník (43′), who after 13 rounds without scoring… scored! It was Sporting’s first and only shot on goal in the first half.
Friends Trincão and Israel
Even with the best half hour of the João Pereira era, Sporting went into the break owing responsibility for the result to themselves, because the team is in a phase where things go bad, even when they seem to be going well.
Once again, the entry was almost perfect (as in Brugge) and in the second half it was repeated, with Trincão (47′) waking up to make it 2-1, after a timed play by Maxi Araújo, but Boavista’s second shot on goal by Franco Israel had the same fate as the previous one.
The move seemed lost, but the defensive deconcentration of the lions suffered the maximum penalty again, applied by Bruno Onyemaechi (58′) under the goalkeeper’s body Leo. Two shots, two goals.
The difference between this game and the previous ones was, above all, the ease with which Sporting managed to create dangerous moves. Even without influential players, João Pereira recovered Gyökeres’ exploration of depth and the Swede’s movement proved fundamental for Trincão (66′) appeared again at a decisive level. In addition to the victory, this would have been the best news for João Pereira.
Of course, the short advantage was not enough to reassure the Alvalade stands, so much so that the last 20 minutes were played very poorly on both sides, but in the end the objective was to survive. For now, Sporting and João Pereira can breathe a sigh of relief.
Flashscore man of the match: Francisco Trincão (Sporting)
