Sporting in the driving seat in the League Cup

Jorge Jesus had already made it clear in his pre-match press conference that his side would be looking for an extended run in the League Cup, while keeping in mind the January 2nd league encounter with FC Porto. As expected, the Sporting boss rang the changes to his side and it was the inclusion of Gelson Martins and Matheus Pereira that proved the difference on the night, in an impressive 3-1 win over Paços de Ferreira.

Although Paços fought hard to smoother out Sporting's attacks early on, there was little the visitors could do out wide. Montero picked up possession and fed back to Jefferson and the Brazilian obliged with a cross that Gelson guided towards Aquiliani for the Italian to open the scoring from the edge of the box after 8 minutes. Next try his luck from range was Arien, but the Alvalade skipper's effort was kept out by Defendi. Barnes made the most of a loose ball to send a shot toward's Marcelo's goal, but it was all one-way traffic as the half progressed. Matheus picked out André Matrins in the 37th minute, but the midfielder's effort when isolated in front of goal lacked pace and was stopped by Defendi.

Sporting looked certain to take a lead in at the break, but a seemingly harmless free-kick saw Marcelo tricked by a shot by Christian to level the score at half-time in what was miles away from being a true reflection of the action so far.

The break worked wonders for Jesus' side, who immediately created two chances for Montero (shot over the bar, 46’) and André Martins (header defended by Defendi, 48’). However, the third attempt proved the trick, when Matheus found Jefferson charging forward. The Brazilian's initial cross took a deflection, but Gelson was on hand to collect and put Sporting back into a deserved lead. Christian tried to get Paços back into it with a shot from range, but Sporting were looking far to long and another goal was inevitable.

Paulo Oliveira popped up in the area and put a header just wide eight minutes after the hour mark, before Bryan Ruiz finished off the result after being picked out by another deadly pass from Mathes. Slimani hit the post twice in the dying stages (82’ and 90+2’), but it made little difference to a convincing victory that sees Sporting close 2016 on a high.