Gray skies, winter weather, or it wasn’t January. Fine rain, that annoying kind, that wets slowly, but doesn’t demobilize. Two hours before the start of the second classic of the season between Benfica and Sporting, there was a healthy coexistence between fans of both colors, time to fill their bellies and quench their thirst, before the game where a title was at stake.
In the midst of the rain and gloom of the stadium flanked by Leiria Castle we discovered a group divided Solomonically between Sporting fans and Benfica fans. Problems between them? Not even seeing them, despite the rivalry. “I think that among friends the objective is for us all to be well”, David, one of the quintet’s members, began telling us.
Being a “game is to win” he had no difficulty in recognizing the Lions’ difficulties in approaching this classic, given the various injuries plaguing the team.
“We won the championship, that’s the most important thing. [Uma derrota] It can change the team, but we have a new coach, who ended up coming in, bringing new dynamics, and given the injuries we are aware that things may not go so well. But we have faith in the team, and I think we will win”, he said, highlighting the healthy atmosphere between fans of both clubs. “There are people from Benfica in Sporting’s area and there are no problems at all, everything is going well”.
-Gabriel, a Benfica fan, believes that a defeat will not jeopardize the Reds’ morale in the fight for the season’s main objective, the national championship. “I don’t think so. There’s still a lot of championship ahead of us. Sporting and Benfica are a little shaky, but there’s still a lot to play for”, he said, before thumbing his nose at what Bruno Lage’s work has been like in this second spell. for Benfica. “He is a somewhat short coach for the aspirations we have”, he highlighted, also leaving an appeal to the red management for this January transfer market: “We need a credible alternative for the attack and a reliable striker, which is not happening since Darwin and Gonçalo Ramos left”, he stressed.
A fan, whose name we forgot to ask, saw the pleasant banter he was in interrupted for a moment, but he did not fail to highlight the fundamental aspect of this type of game. “We are well accompanied, with food and friends. I’m here from Leiria. It’s a nucleus not of the club, but of friends, I arrived recently, but the group had already been installed since the morning”, he says. In relation to the impact that a triumph or a setback in this competition can have, it is not in line with euphoria or depression.
“The coach is new, he will want to win a World Cup here, but the defeat doesn’t affect what’s left of the season”, he highlighted
