Brazilian team was travelling to Colombia for the Copa Sudamericana final

A airplane carrying the Brazilian football team Chapecoense was involved in an accident on Monday night in Cerro Gordo. The team from the city of Santa Catarina, where former Alvalade keeper Marcelo Boeck now plays but was not travelling with the squad, were on the way to Medellin for the the Copa Sudamericana final against Atlético Nacional.

The Brazilian club have made the following announcement: "In light of contrasting news which is being announced from various sources in relation to an accident with the airplane transporting the Chapecoense team, Associação Chapecoense de Futebol, through its vice-president, Ivan Tozzo, will await an official statement from the Colombian authorities. May God be with our athletes, directors, journalists and everyone travelling with the delegations."

Sporting CP is with Chapecoense and all of the families of those travelling on the flight at the extremely difficult time.

João de Deus happy with his side's performance despite missing out on the points

His side might have come away empty handed from Sunday's hosting of Penafiel, but João de Deus was not completely displeased with the performance.

"If you put the result to one side, then I would say we played well. Although we were missing a bit of maturity and experience at times", said the Sporting CP B coach in an interview at the final whistle, adding his analysis of the encounter: "We let a goal in from a dead ball situation which we had been working a lot on in training, so we are feeling a bit frustrated. Both halves were essentially the same, with Penafiel better in the opening 10 minutes. We showed touches of quality in the first-half and had chances on goal which we missed through a bit of immaturity. There is no getting around it, this is an under-23 team."

Cold weather and a mature Penafiel side deny Sporting CP B of the points

Sporting CP B narrowly missed out to Penafiel (2-1) on Liga LedmanPro matchday 16 this Sunday afternoon, at the Sporting Academy.

Not even a full 60 seconds had ticked over when Kalindi crossed a ball into the box that Wellington converted on, handing Sporting B an uphill challenge compounded on by some remarkably cold weather. It took João de Deus's side the best part of half an hour to properly settle, aided by a break in the afternoon's rainfall, and Pedro Delgado reestablished the deadlock with a goal in the 28th minute.

The goal totally blew away Sporting CP B's nerves and Penafiel could do little more than drop back under a hail of attacking football. Baldé tried his luck twice (37' and 42'), followed by efforts from Pedro Delgado (41') and Escobar (42'), but the half-time result remained fixed at on-a-piece.

While Sporting CP B continued to dominate after the break, Penafiel were also looking dangerous when in possession. On 59 minutes André Fontes blasted a shot against the post, before Stojkovic pulled off a penalty stop a minute later after Budag had brought down Kalindi in the area. Making hte most of the momentum, Penafiel struck 12 minutes from time through João Paulo to sentence the final result.

Joel Campbell on Saturday's Liga NOS win against Boavista

Joel Campbell was given a chance to show what he can do this Saturday, with a place in the starting line-up against Boavista.

"It was a good game and we got the three points, which was important for us. It was a hard against a good team, but we did what we had to", said the Costa Rican striker at the final whistle, adding: "We were really focused at the start and we put Real Madrid behind us. We are on the right track and these three points will lift us going forward now."

Solo strike from Bas Dost secures the three points in Estádio do Bessa

Sporting CP claimed a thoroughly deserved win in Estádio do Bessa this Saturday night, courtesy of a header from Bas Dost after a stroke of brilliance from Gelson Martins.

It was the Dutch hitman's seventh Liga NOS goal, who found the back of the net after hitting the post a few minutes earlier. It was actually a very different side fielded by Jorge Jesus, with Joel Campbell playing off Dost and Bruno César and Gelson roaming the flanks in what was a much more dynamic Alvalade offence.

Sporting CP really did dominate from start to finish, with a performance that was only soured by an extremely exaggerated sending off of Rúben Semedo (two bookable offences).

Jesus announces squad for trip north to face Boavista

Jorge Jesus has announced his squad to travel to Estádio do Bessa, on Liga NOS matchday 11:

1 - Rui Patrício
2 - Ezequiel Schelotto
3 - Lazar Markovic
7 - Joel Campbell
10 - Bryan Ruiz
11 - Bruno César
13 - Sebastian Coates
14 - William Carvalho
15 - Paulo Oliveira
16 - André Felipe
20 - Luc Castaignos
21 - João Pereira
22 - Elias Trindade
23 - Adrien Silva
28 - Bas Dost
31 - Marvin Zeegelaar
34 - Beto Pimparel
35 - Rúben Semedo
77 - Gelson Martins
99 - Alan Ruiz

Jorge Jesus's side on the road in the Portuguese Cup last-16

Sporting CP will travel to Vitória Futebol Clube (Vitória de Setúbal) in the Portuguese Cup last-16, in what is the only encounter between two Liga NOS teams.

The fixture will be played between the 13th and 15th od December in Estádio do Bonfim.

Sporting CP's director for football, Octávio Machado, was at the draw and noted: “It is a respectable opponent and I have a lot of personal admiration for them. It will be a hard match, but we want to get into the final of the Portuguese Cup. We will do everything we can to win this."

Draw in full:

Leixões - Tondela

Real Massamá - Benfica

Estoril Praia - Sanjoanense

Torrense - Chaves

SC Braga - SC Covilhã

Académica - Penafiel

V. Setúbal - SPORTING

V. Guimarães - Vilafranquense

Mateus Pereira claims win for 9-man Sporting CP B

Sporting B beat União da Madeira 1-0 this Wednesday, courtesy of a 35th minute strike from Matheus Pereira.

It was a particularly deserved win for João de Deus's side, who battled on to finish with nine men after the sending off of Kiki and Ricardo Esgaio.

The result moved Sporting B up to sixth overall in Ledman LigaPro with 24 points from 15 matches. 

Sales to begin for the trip to Bessa

Tickets for Liga NOS matchday 11, between Boavista Futebol Clube and Sporting Clube de Portugal, will go on sale at Estádio José Alvalade as follows:

THURSDAY (10H TO 20H) | Club Members only

FRIDAY (10H TO 15H) | General public

The first day of sales is exclusively for Club Members and a Member Card of Gamebox must be shown. Each card is valid for one ticket and must have October 2016 fees paid. Each person may present a maximum of 4 cards.

Kick-off is scheduled for 18h15 on Saturday the 26th of November, in Estádio do Bessa. Tickets are for the North Goal End and are priced at 12€ each.

Jorge Jesus praises his side's performance against the European champions

Despite missing out 2-1 and seeing his side's hopes of Champions League knock-out stage qualification dashed, coach Jorge Jesus had some much deserved words of praise, after watching his side once again put Real Madrid to the test.

"We have missed out on two big opportunities to beat Real Madrid. Only a team with the quality of Sporting could play the way we did against who for me are the best team in the world. Honestly you couldn't see the difference in individual quality between the two sides tonight", said Jesus, going on to comment on the sending off of João Pereira: "We knew the second-half would be better for us, because physically we were better and Real Madrid had a hard game against Atlético Madrid at the weekend. They wouldn't have been able to keep up, but when João got sent off Real pushed harder. Even so, we still scored. João didn't do anything wrong and Kovacic played it smart. I am fed up of saying it, but this whole fair-play thing is a bit fake. It doesn't exist in football. It it did, then Kovacic wouldn't have done what he did to trick the referee."