Lion entry. Very intense, suffocating at times, pushing Farence to the ropes. Ten minutes of real pressure, in which the Lion would have…closed the game. Outrageous occasions ensued. In the first eight minutes, many shots, three of which Ricardo Filho (almost cold) avoided with an exceptional save. Thus began Sporting’s defense of the League Cup title. Against a Liga 2 opponent, but not just any opponent. We are talking about one of the candidates for promotion and that this season, we must remember, he added only one defeat, against the leader Moreirense.
Black’s goal can be guessed at any time. at a double dose. Just over two minutes later, the Lions, or rather … Paulinho, opened the game. Two solid goals that gave us peace of mind and, to be honest, were justified even in the face of Leonine’s almost devastating entry. First, in a movement in which Trincao wins the pass and crosses for the striker, and the second, in turn, is in an excellent attacking movement with several players. Edwards, Trincao, Pedro Gonçalves and, of course, Paulinho who scored twice in the second, as Ricardo Filho parried the first shot.
Farense’s resistance lasted … 22 minutes. And the first mark, on a mid-range shot from Rui Costa, only appeared at 33′. Having accomplished the task of scoring early, Sporting paused the game and began using greater dynamics and less attacking spin. But the Lions were very inspiring, especially with top class individual performances, and Edwards was a good example of that with the third goal even before half time. A move in which the Englishman deftly gets Zac out of his way and puts the ball between the legs of Algarve goalkeeper, Ricardo Filho.
In the second half, despite the change of Vasco Faysca, by removing the attacking midfielder Velasquez from the center of the defense, Gonzalo Silva, nothing changed. And even … things got complicated in the first minutes of the second half with a goal scored by Pedro Gonçalves, unmarked in the Algarve, who finished the game after Pedro Porro (another assist) in the right lane. Black, despite the extended advantage, never took its foot off the gas pedal. And he did not stop searching for the target.
And the bunch really showed up a quarter of an hour after the end, again with Paulinho as the entrant. The striker, a character in the game, clearing Ricardo Filho out of his way and having space to score a hat-trick, chose to ‘present’ a gift to Arthur Gomez, who had just joined, who scored the fifth goal in Alvalade.
And it wasn’t over… The icing on the cake for the Lions happened near the end with a debut to score youngster Matheus Fernández who suffered a penalty that (after a display from Jovan Cabral, who was preparing to score…) ended up converting.
See summary:
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