Sporting CP win 0-4 in Liga Portugal action

Sporting Clube de Portugal visited the Estádio Capital do Móvel, home of FC Paços de Ferreira, on Matchday 31, and came back with a 0-4 victory that extends their unbeaten run in Liga Portugal.

The squad featured the return of Paulinho after almost a month out due to injury, and Rúben Amorim made just one change to the starting lineup from the win against FC Famalicão: Héctor Bellerín replacing Ricardo Esgaio at right-back.

Os Leões started out in control of the match, with Diomande wasting an excellent opportunity from close range in the opening moments. It would be a sign of what was to come, as in the 7th minute, Luiz Carlos, in an attempt to play back to Marafona, diverted the ball onto the post and into his own net for an absurd own goal that put Sporting CP in front.

After the goal the pace became tepid, with no need to accelerate the rhythm of the contest and a plan of trying to invite the opposition on. In one of these situations, in which the team managed to break through the press, Pedro Gonçalves almost scored the second goal from the heart of the area, only to be denied by Marafona.

A team fighting for survival and increasingly in need of points, FC Paços de Ferreira only provided their first offensive move close to the half-hour, but Sporting CP quickly responded with a goal to make it 0-2 in the 33rd minute. Nuno Santos received the ball, advanced a few meters and, right after entering the area, lifted the ball over the goalkeeper with great class.

Even with a two-goal advantage, Sporting CP continued to create promising moves and could even have increased the lead before the break. In the best of these chances, Francisco Trincão broke into the box and shot hard, but once again Marafona made the stop.

Upon the restart, FC Paços de Ferreira became more daring and showed signs of wanting to turn the scoreline around, but it was short-lived. Once again, Sporting CP found the net, on 62 minutes, through Francisco Trincão. In a brilliant individual move, he went through two opposition defenders, and finished off to take the score to 0-3.

Amorim then made his first changes, bringing in Paulinho, Mateo Tanlongo and Arthur Gomes. What followed was a phase of total dominance for Os Leões.

In the final minutes they bombarded the Paços de Ferreira area, creating several opportunities. After he himself had come close to scoring, shooting into the side netting, Arthur appeared on the left and set up substitute Youssef Chermiti, who only had to tap the ball in to round off the scoring in the third minute of stoppage time.

A 0-4 triumph made it eleven consecutive games unbeaten for Os Leões and took them past the 100-goal mark for the season. They next play on Saturday, May 13th, against CS Marítimo on Matchday 32.

Sporting CP: Antonio Adán [GK], Ousmane Diomande, Sebastián Coates [C] (Matheus Reis, 82'), Gonçalo Inácio, Héctor Bellerín, Manuel Ugarte (Youssef Chermiti, 82'), Hidemasa Morita (Mateo Tanlongo, 65') , Nuno Santos (Arthur Gomes, 75'), Pedro Gonçalves, Marcus Edwards (Paulinho, 65') and Francisco Trincão.