The team defeat CD Santa Clara 2-1 in the semifinals

Sporting Clube de Portugal made it through to the final of the Taça da Liga with victory over CD Santa Clara, winning 2-1 through an own goal from Mikel Villanueva and a strike by Pablo Sarabia. The current holders of the trophy will face SL Benfica to decide this year's winners of the competition.

Coach Rúben Amorim made four changes to the starting XI from the loss to SC Braga, bringing Luís Neto, Nuno Santos, Manuel Ugarte and Bruno Tabata into the team.

The Sporting CP strategy completely suffocated the opposition in the midfield early on, and the first great opportunity to score came in the 15th minute, when Nuno Santos, set up by Matheus Reis from the left, placed the ball into the heart of the area. After a scramble, CD Santa Clara eventually cleared the danger.

A quarter of an hour later, a chance fell to Bruno Tabata, who took advantage of an opposing player's mistake to play inside to Pablo Sarabia. The Spanish international took a defender out of his way and shot, but goalkeeper Ricardo Fernandes managed to stop the effort.

It was cruel luck, after such early dominance, that led to CD Santa Clara breaking the deadlock in the 32nd minute. A direct free kick from Lincoln beat Antonio Adán, taking the score to 0-1.

Sporting CP reacted immediately. First, Bruno Tabata had two chances. Then, Ricardo Esgaio scored -only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.

Five minutes from half time, Bruno Tabata sent a long pass through to Nuno Santos, who tried to provide an assist to a teammate. However, defender Mikel Villanueva appeared to cut out the threat -and was only able to turn the ball into CD Santa Clara's own net.

Before the end of the first half, shots by Bruno Tabata and Matheus Reis were saved and went wide, respectively, and CD Santa Clara had a Cryzan header from a Lincoln free kick hit the post.

The 1-1 scoreline was harsh: Taking into account the official statistics of Liga Portugal, Sporting CP had seven shots to their opponents' three, six corners to one and 73% possession, compared to 27%.

The second half kicked off slightly less intensely, but Sporting CP maintained their dominance. In the 58th minute, they had another goal disallowed -this time for Bruno Tabata, for offside.

Soon after, referee António Nobre consulted VAR over a penalty appeal in the CD Santa Clara box. The video footage confirmed the spot kick, and the incident resulted in a sending off for Rui Costa.

Pablo Sarabia smashed home the penalty to take the score to 2-1.

With Sporting CP ahead, Matheus Nunes and Paulinho came on in place of João Palhinha and Pedro Gonçalves, with Pablo Sarabia and Ricardo Esgaio later making way for Rúben Vinagre and Gonçalo Esteves.

The team continued looking for another goal, and Ricardo Fernandes twice denied Paulinho in the final ten minutes. He would also keep out a Matheus Reis header, as Paulinho put the rebound wide off the follow-up.

The Taça da Liga derby final is scheduled for Saturday, January 29th, at 7:45pm local time at the Estádio Municipal de Leiria - Dr. Magalhães Pessoa.

Sporting CP: Antonio Adán [GK], Luís Neto [C], Gonçalo Inácio, Matheus Reis, Ricardo Esgaio (Gonçalo Esteves, 80'), Manuel Ugarte, João Palhinha (Matheus Nunes, 67'), Nuno Santos (Tiago Tomás, 90'), Pedro Gonçalves (Paulinho, 67'), Pablo Sarabia (Rúben Vinagre, 80') and Bruno Tabata.