Os Leões best GD Estoril Praia at home in Liga Portugal

A 3-0 win for Sporting Clube de Portugal against GD Estoril Praia kept up the pressure at the top on Matchday 23 of the Liga Portugal season. Pedro Gonçalves, Matheus Reis and Pablo Sarabia scored the goals for Os Leões at the Estádio José Alvalade.

On a cold afternoon, albeit with clear skies and many families present in the stands, Sporting CP made three changes to the starting lineup that had faced Manchester City in midweek: Luís Neto - captaining the side in the absence of Sebastián Coates -, Zouhair Feddal and Manuel Ugarte were all brought in.

Paulinho provided the first dangerous move of the game in the seventh minute, when he stole the ball from a defender and moved towards goal. Soon after, Pedro Gonçalves' shot from long distance brought with it another close call.

Gonçalves' next opportunity, hit wide, came before the first move of any note for the visitors. Successfully stifling that chance, Sporting CP went forward again, as Pedro Porro struck over the crossbar.

Paulinho also threatened with a header and, in the 35th minute, a penalty kick was appealed for in the GD Estoril Praia area, for a handball by a defender, blocking Pablo Sarabia's shot. Referee Hélder Malheiro, however, ordered play to continue.

Finally, the deadlock was broken five minutes before the break. From outside the area, Sarabia had his shot blocked by Daniel Figueira, the ball falling to Gonçalves with the goal at his mercy. The goalscoring instinct of the No. 28 shirt did not let him down, and he made it 1-0 to Sporting CP.

There was still time for Matheus Nunes, after a great individual move, to shoot into the side netting, and for Sarabia to give Figueira work to do with a direct free-kick, but the first half ended 1-0 to Sporting CP.

During the break, more than 100 players from the Petizes, Traquinas, Benjamins and Infantis levels at the Pólo do Estádio Universitário de Lisboa (EUL) and at the Academias de Formação Sporting (AFS) took to the pitch as a prize for the excellent marks they had achieved at school.

The second half started with a slow pace, and on the hour mark coach Rúben Amorim put on Daniel Bragança in place of Matheus Nunes. Soon after, a counterattack ended with Porro hitting the ball towards the far post, with Paulinho arriving slightly late to the effort.

In the 64th minute, the referee sent off Raul Silva for a hard foul on Porro, leaving GD Estoril Praia down to ten men. Sporting CP became even more dominant and threatened when Sarabia received the ball in the area and shot -a defender intercepting the attempt.

With 20 minutes to go, Islam Slimani came on for Manuel Ugarte. Sporting CP made it 2-0 through an excellent counterattack that involved him, as Porro played to the striker in the midfield, he released to Matheus Reis, and a backheeled one-two with Paulinho ended with Reis putting the ball into the net.

Paulinho, Bragança and Reis all kept goalkeeper Figueira busy, before finally Sarabia found the space he needed to strike, scoring a magnificent goal that capped the 3-0 victory for Os Leões.

The team now travel to Madeira, where next Saturday they face CS Marítimo in Liga Portugal.

Sporting CP: Antonio Adán [GR], Luís Neto [C], Gonçalo Inácio, Zouhair Feddal, Pedro Porro (Gonçalo Esteves, 82'), Manuel Ugarte (Islam Slimani, 70'), Matheus Nunes (Daniel Bragança, 60') , Matheus Reis (Nuno Santos, 82'), Pablo Sarabia, Pedro Gonçalves and Paulinho (Marcus Edwards, 82').