Leo’s Answer | Sporting Clube de Portugal official website
Sporting CP prevailed and beat GD Estoril Praia (0-2)
The main football team of Sporting Clube de Portugal visited and won, this Friday night, GD Estoril Praia by 0-2 in the fifth round of the Liga Portugal.
After two negative results, the team from Alvalade prevailed with class in Estoril and returned to victories with a true response from Leão. In a first half of luxury, Jeremiah St. Juste and Marcus Edwards materialized the green boot and the safety of the Lions, in the second, ensured the triumph.
To face a canarian team that reached this round in fifth place in the championship, Rúben Amorim made four changes compared to the last Leonino ‘eleven’: Matheus Reis, Hidemasa Morita, Jeremiah St. Juste (debut as a starter) and Pedro Porro (return) after) in the initial options, leaving Luís Neto, Gonçalo Inácio, Ricardo Esgaio and Rochinha on the bench. In turn, Pedro Gonçalves advanced minutes to the reinforcement trio and Sotiris Sotiris Alexandro was summoned and added Leão’s first minutes to his chest.
In a Coimbra da Mota stadium in a noisy in a noisy Wave by the green set and started in an authoritarian way and, after monopolizing the possession of ten minutes white in the first minutes, the ball was released as green opportunities, and the Leoninos goal. In a first corner, Matheus Reis headed the crossbar and warned, but in the second, central St. Juste did not forgive and burst into the heart of the area to open the green and white mark and open the scoring in Estoril.
Soon after, however, Rodrigo Martins almost took advantage of a protected inattention to level the score, but failed to hit Antonio Adán’s deserted goal. Sporting not only did not flinch but also immediately increased the advantage: Pedro Porro threw in the depth and was masterfully Marcus Edwards, who, already in the area, dribbled the keeper Dani Figueira and assisted the 0-2 shortly after 20 minutes had elapsed.
Once again, GD Estoril Praia responded with an attempt by João Carlos, although again without a hit – the forward was injured before the 45th minute by Benchimol. From this stage onwards, Alvalade’s team proved comfortable on the scoreboard and on the field, connecting their game with approximate quality to maintain possession – without allowing protection – and continue to threaten in the attack.
In the 35th minute, Porro stepped into the area and shot over, ‘Pote’ and Nuno Santos saw their dangerous shots blocked at the last minute and Edwards, by far, couldn’t get the better of Figueira again. Excellent first half of Amorim’s men, who completely dominate with a fast and associative football without any ‘antidote’ on the part of Nélson Veríssimo’s team.
In the restart, GD Estoril Praia rose naturally like its lines, had more ball, with ex-Leão Francisco Geraldes as the protagonist, and managed to rebalance the encounter – Benchimol took the shot in a face-to-face with Adán. Amorim, in turn, in turn, for his replacement Rochinha axis, at age 5, little or little Edward, in turn, for his first attack, for axes approaches in the second half. The best came in the 70th minute, when Porro, free-kick, was very close to the third.
Restrained the canarian reaction, Sporting CP recovered with possession and control of the match until the end without any problems. Already in the last quarter of an hour, Porro tried his luck again in one of his numerous nets invested from the right and Luís came in for St. Juste – much applauded by the Sportsmen and considered, later, the Man of the Game.
In the final phase, the game heated up, yellow cards multiplied, especially for the green and white sides – eight in total – and Leonino launched a ‘card’ trip to the last minutes: Esgaio, Fatawu and the reinforcement Sotiris came in – debut – and Porro, Pedro Gonçalves and Ugarte left.
Thus, the three points will go to Alvalade and, now, for the Lions, the debut in the UEFA Champions League 2022/2023 follows a trip to Germany, next Wednesday (5:45 pm CET), to face Eintracht Frankfurt in first day of group D.
Sporting CP: Antonio Adam [GR]Pedro Porro (Ricardo Esgaio 89′), Jeremiah St. Juste (Luís Neto 77′), Sebastián Coates [C]Matheus Reis, Nuno Santos, Manuel Ugarte (Sotiris Alexandropoulos 89′), Hidemasa Morita, Francisco Trincão, Pedro Gonçalves (Fatawu 89′) and Marcus Edwards (Rochinha 57′).