Sporting beats Benfica 1-0 and regains Portuguese leadership (Reproduction/Sport TV)
While most teams enjoy holidays, football continued strong in the English, Portuguese and Italian championships. And with emotion to spare. In Liga Portugal, Sporting regained the lead with the victory over Benfica and showed that it is still the best team in the country.
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In the Premier League, Liverpool remains devastating and unbeatable. The one who gained relief in the round was Manchester City, who won again after four rounds.
Portuguese Championship
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Under the command of coach Rui Borges for the first time, Sporting seems to have found itself again. On Sunday night, Leão won the derby against Benfica 1-0 at the José Alvalade Stadium, to a fado soundtrack (at the entrance of the athletes). With that, they regained the lead in the competition and beat their main rival to third place.
Best on the field, the Lions imposed themselves from the start and opened the scoring in the 28th minute, when Swedish Gyökeres advanced from the far left, entered the area and gave a millimetric pass for Geny Catamo to score into the net. Curiosity: the Mozambican striker had already scored a similar goal against the same Benfica team last season.
In the second stage, the Swiss Amdouni had a clear chance to equalize the score, but he shot over the goal (as the Portuguese say). Gyökeres almost expanded at the end, in a speed play, but Ukrainian goalkeeper Trubin made a good save.
English Championship
Writing about Liverpool in the Premier League is telling about the best team in Europe today. Coach Arne Slot’s team beat West Ham 5-0 and maintained their lead with 45 points – eight more than runners-up Nottingham Forest. Luis Díaz, Gakpo, Salah, Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota scored the rout. Highlight for the Egyptian star, of course. In addition to the goal, he made two assists in the match.
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Nottingham Forest, in fact, is worth highlighting. The team led by Portuguese Nuno Espírito Santo beat Everton 2-0, away from home, and achieved their fifth consecutive victory. Shirt number 10 and team star Morgan Gibbs-White and striker Wood scored the goals.
In turn, Manchester City gained relief and won again after five games. The team led by Pep Guardiola beat Leicester 2-0, with goals from Savinho and Haaland. The Brazilian striker, in fact, was the author of the cross for the Norwegian to score with a header.
– What am I feeling? Just relief, that’s the word that expresses how we all feel. We did incredible things and now we have difficulty winning games, so we are just relieved – said Guardiola after the match.
Italian Championship
In a turbulent phase of the season, Milan fired Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca after drawing 1-1 with Roma at the San Siro Stadium. The coach was already being questioned by the press and local fans and did not resist his position. The Rossoneri club has already announced fellow Brazilian Sérgio Conceição as the new commander.
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Milan is eighth in the table, with 27 points – seven more than Roma (10th). Atalanta and Napoli share the lead in the competition, with 41, followed by Internazionale, with 40, but which is on the rise with five consecutive victories in the competition.
*Diego Guichard is NSC Total’s correspondent in Lisbon
