This Saturday, Arouca took an unprecedented 13th game win in history with Sporting, surpassing themselves 1-0, in an 11th round match of the I Football League in which they fought back ‘leonine’ supremacy with a surgical display.
At Estádio Municipal de Arouca, an effective header by Brazilian João Basso in the 47th minute was enough for the Serra da Freira club to extend their best start in the elite and worsen a mixed season for the Lisboners, against whom they always lost .
Three days before the qualification for the ‘8th’ of the Champions League was decided in the reception of Eintracht Frankfurt, Rúben Amorim’s team took care of the physical condition of some holders, but succumbed, as on other occasions in 2022/23, by the offensive ineffectiveness, breaking a cycle of three consecutive championship wins with the fourth defeat.
Arouca, who has not lost five games in a row, has moved up to eighth place for now, with 16 points, three under Sporting, which remains in fourth place, with 19, 12 behind leader Benfica, four from FC Porto and three from Sporting. the Braga, that has one game less.
Between the final two rounds of Group D of the ‘Champions’, Rúben Amorim swapped six holders of the draw with Tottenham (1-1), leaving influential units such as Pedro Porro, Nuno Santos, Manuel Ugarte and Marcus Edwards on the bench. .
Dário Essugo made his main team debut this season, accompanying returning Pedro Goncalves in midfield, who went wide from a free kick in the fourth minute, and was disarmed by Jerome Opoku when he was already practicing the shot in the frontal. zone, at 14 .
Sporting also tested the ‘guard’ Ignacio de Arruabarrena in the 9th minute, in a cross ‘shot’ by Francisco Trincão, in which Arthur Gomes was unable to make the rebound, and in the 23rd, in a transition from Rochinha, he saw Gonçalo Inácio still heads the way, at 17.
While Oday Dabbagh replaced Rafa Mújica in the face of equality with Marítimo (1-1), Arouca resisted in the previous round in anticipation of Lisbon’s offensive flow, but became serene after half an hour and threatened to counterattack the 39 minutes, when Bukia isolated himself with Antony’s pass to shoot the figure of António Adán.
Three minutes before half time, the ‘lions’ were still picking up steam, with De Arruabarrena fending off a first ‘shot’ from Ricardo Esgaio, who returned to competition four games later and dragged the ‘nil’ into the complementary phase, which started with no substitutions .
Contrary to logic, it took Armando Evangelista’s team two minutes after returning from the locker rooms to open the scoring, with João Basso forcing himself into the opponent’s area to react to David Simão’s right corner and head in Adán .
Tiago Esgaio, served by Dabbagh, almost took advantage of the bewilderment of others in the 51st minute, forcing another intervention from the national number two goalkeeper, just before Rúben Amorim Jeremiah St. Juste and Manuel Ugarte.
Sporting ran out of substitutions even before playing time, with Nuno Santos and Marcus Edwards, accentuating the dominance of the ball in Arouca’s midfield, albeit without discernment and purpose that could determine the cohesion of the Serra da Freita club.
A few moves by Porro, at 66 and 81 minutes, the first centimeters of the goal and the second denied by Ignacio de Arruabarrena, served to spur the ‘green and white’ into the decisive phase, whose emotion increased with the clock ahead.
In the 87th minute, Nuno Santos threw himself into the hands of the host’s ‘guard’, who ‘grew up’ in extra time for a header from Sebastián Coates, Rúben Amorim’s latest strategy to extend Sporting’s attacking solutions .
A misguided initiative by Pedro Goncalves culminated moments later in a disastrous night for the ‘Lions’, who have already surpassed the number of defeats in the 2021/22 edition of the I Liga, the mistake of the 10th goal by 2022/23 in set pieces, a total of 22.
Source: DN
