Harder stopped asking questions to become one of the answers (the Sporting-Santa Clara chronicle) – Observer

For the first time, except after the debut game with Amarante, João Pereira heard a starting whistle after a victory. Sporting put an end to the weeks horrible by beating Boavista, despite many difficulties and two more goals conceded, and this Wednesday they received Santa Clara in the Portuguese Cup — but the days of work on top of a triumph allowed me to have more confidence.

The lions were hosting an opponent they lost to just over two weeks ago, in what was João Pereira’s first defeat and also Sporting’s first defeat in the Championship, and they knew that the knockout game put into question an obvious goal of the club’s season. club. All in a week in which, in addition to the complex victory against Boavista, the lions saw Benfica slip against AVS — in other words, they ensured that they only depend on themselves to reach the Alvalade classic in isolated leadership.

“Since the first defeat we had a great desire to respond. A great desire to return to winning ways and constant commitment. If we watch all the games we always do very well. It was the answer the players wanted to give. Honestly, I think we are on the right path and emotionally stable to continue the good results. The tranquility we feel today is that of the first day, nothing has changed. We are focused on the work we have to do, whether now or on the first day”, explained assistant Tiago Teixeira, who replaced João Pereira at the press conference, in the preview.

In this context, João Pereira did not make any changes to the starting eleven that faced Boavista and kept Geovany Quenda and Trincão in support of Gyökeres, with Maxi Araújo and Geny Catamo in the corridors and João Simões, in the absence of Daniel Bragança and Morita, keeping company with Hjulmand in midfield. Gonçalo Inácio was not yet available and St. Juste and Diomande started on the bench, with Matheus Reis, Debast and Eduardo Quaresma forming the defense trio. On the other side, in a Santa Clara team that was coming off a defeat against Arouca in the Championship, Vasco Matos launched João Costa, Gustavo and Vinícius in the most advanced sector.

Diogo Calila had the first dangerous situation in the opening moments, with a shot from outside the area that went wide (4′), but the truth is that the first minutes of the first half immediately demonstrated what the game would be like. Sporting had the initiative chronically, with Santa Clara remaining in its own midfield almost permanently, but the truth is that neither team was able to approach the opposing goals and the match was played almost exclusively and exclusively in the middle. -field.

The lions came close to goal for the first time after the opening quarter of an hour, with Geovany Quenda producing an impressive failure: Debast discovered Geny Catamo on the right, the Mozambican crossed low to the far post and the young winger, almost alone and with the goal practically deserted, shot wide (16′). Santa Clara created little or nothing, but the truth is that Sporting was also unable to create imbalances through the central corridor and was forced to lateralize the game a lot, something that did not favor the creation of opportunities.

Matheus Reis designed a bicycle kick that went over (30′), Geny Catamo shot from outside the area for Neneca to slot in (37′) and Hjulmand ended up scoring close to halftime, but the goal was disallowed because the Dane controlled the ball with his arm before shooting the goal (40′). Until the end of the first half, little or nothing happened, with the Azoreans essentially exploiting the quick transition and Franco Israel finishing the opening 45 minutes without being bothered.

At half-time, Sporting’s lack of inspiration was noticeable. João Pereira’s team was unable to find spaces indoors, largely due to Santa Clara’s positioning, and tried to create connections in the corridors and then finish the moves through crosses, a situation that is somewhat unnatural for the lions. At the end of the first half, Sporting and Santa Clara were tied without goals.

Vasco Matos made changes right at half-time, replacing João Costa with Gabriel Silva, and Quenda had the first dangerous situation of the second half with a shot from outside the area that went over (49′). The logic of the game remained very similar to what had been the first half, but as the minutes went by, Santa Clara became increasingly uninterested in the attack and offensive attacks, even though Sporting wasn’t exactly able to suffocate the Azoreans or take consequences from possession of the ball.

Trincão had another great opportunity to score, shooting into the area and seeing a Santa Clara defender avoid the goal on the line (59′), and Ricardo Esgaio ended up being sent off for accumulating yellow cards while warming up, after arguing with Hélder Malheiro. João Pereira changed this phase for the first time, exchanging Geny Catamo and Matheus Reis for Conrad Harder and St. Juste, and Quenda retreated to the right side.

And the impact of the replacements was immediate. Quenda crossed from the right, Neneca had a poor approach to the move and Harder took advantage of it to deflect it towards the goal, opening the scoring moments after entering the field (74′). João Pereira replaced Debast with Diomande, Gabriel Silva headed over Franco Israel (90+4′) and the goalkeeper even saved a shot from Guilherme Ramos (90+7′), with Santa Clara even ending up tying well into added time, through Pedro Ferreira (90+8′), sending the tie into extra time.

Trincão (100′) and Gyökeres (103′) had opportunities to score in the first part of the extra half-hour, João Pereira debuted young Mauro Couto and the lions ended up managing to seal the victory on the verge of penalties. Frederico Venâncio made a colossal mistake by being late to Neneca, Gyökeres took the opportunity to dribble past the goalkeeper and deflected it into an empty goal (113′).

At the end, Sporting beat Santa Clara in Alvalade after extra time and secured qualification for the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup, adding the second victory in a row and maintaining one of the main objectives of the season. Although it was Gyökeres who scored the decisive goal, Conrad Harder showed once again that he can create triumphs from the bench — and went from asking fans questions, in the wake of Belgium’s defeat in the Champions League, to being one of the answers by João Pereira.