Sporting makes its debut this Wednesday in the group stage of the Champions League with a visit to Eintracht Frankfurt, champion of the Europa League.
In the financial center of Germany, and with Gonçalo Inácio as the main novelty in the eleven, Sporting was very close to losing in the league of millions: it was worth Adán to correct the miscalculated delay of Ugarte that Muani almost took advantage of the step of the first 90 seconds of the game.
That was not even the first warning from the Germans. It is that, even before the start of the game, a clear message came from the stands: “Frankfurt creates problems (Frankfurt gives problems).” And the one who gave problems was Lenz, who knocked down Edwards inside the penalty area in the 11th minute, but after reviewing the VAR images, the game continued: the Englishman had stepped on the rival’s foot.
After the first 25 minutes of play in Frankfurt, it was clear that if Sporting wanted to play from behind and have the ball under control in their midfield, they would have to hit a lot more. It is that at least twice more he put the ball at the feet of the Eintracht players and, if it were not for Adan or a poorly defined final pass, he would be losing through errors. And Kamada, the Japanese signed by Benfica this summer, made a lot of things happen between the lines.
The lions’ first big chance of danger ended up coming in the 35th minute, when Edwards entered the German area down the right lane of the attack, took out a defender and finished low. Trapp quickly dropped to the ground, stretched out his left arm and blocked the goal.
At the break, the teams were reversed: Kamada opened from the left and the center that came out hit Morita’s legs. It was worth another immediate rebound to avoid an own goal and take the ball to Adan.
Goalless in the opening 45 minutes, it was Germans manager Oliver Glasner who opted to move first: he gave up Lenz at half-time to launch Luca Pellegrini. Rúben Amorim was eventually forced to go the same way, when St. Juste had to go out with injury.
Enter Neto, who saw another German scoring opportunity from the front row when a turnover by the Sporting defense – once again, this time by Coates – left Kamada in front of goal. It was the Portuguese defender himself who cut the shot.
He had the power to wake up lions. After threatening a free kick won by Edwards, the Englishman was the protagonist. Pote found Morita going down the line, the Japanese crossed from the left and found Edwards ahead of the defence. The English prevailed in the physical clash and made the accurate shot for 1-0.
The door was open. Adan starts playing with a long shot to the midfield circle and the ball ends up at Edwards again, this time to the right. The Englishman got into the penalty area, waited, gave it to Trincao and the Portuguese winger, alone, made it 2-0 against Trapp.
Eleven of Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp; Jakic, Tuta, Ndicka, Lenz; Dina Ebimbe, sow; Lindstrom, Gotze, Kamada; Kolo Muani.
Sporting’s eleven: Adam; St. Juste, Coates, Gonçalo Inacio; Pedro Porro, Ugarte, Morita, Matheus Reis; Trincao, Edwards, Pedro Goncalves.
The referee of the game is the Israeli Orel Grinfeeld, assisted by Roy Hassan and Idan Yarkoni. In VAR is the Dutchman Pol van Boekel.
Substitutes for Eintracht Frankfurt: Grahl, Ramaj, Onguéné, Smolcic, Alidou, Borré, Hasebe, Alario, Chandler, Pellegrini and Knauff.
Sports substitutes: Franco Israel, André Paulo, Alexandropoulos, Nuno Santos, Luís Neto, Rochinha, Fatawu, Paulinho, Arthur Gomes, Ricardo Esgaio, José Marsà.
Source: TSF
