Sporting finished the first half of the season top of the league after a straightforward victory in their final match of the primeira volta on a wintry Saturday night in Chaves.
Goals either side of half time from Paulinho, Francisco Trincão and Pote made it seven straight victories in all competitions for the Lions and put pressure on the chasing pack Benfica, Porto and Braga, all of whom play on Sunday.
Eduardo Quaresma continued his recent run of starts for Sporting as the Lisbon outfit continued a series of matches without the trio of Geny Catamo, Ousmande Diomande and Hidemasa Morita, who are away on international duty for their respective nations for around a month.
Hugo Souza impresses
It made no difference as Rúben Amorim’s team had far too much for a desperately poor Chaves side. It was one-way traffic from the off, with only Chaves’ Brazilian goalkeeper Hugo Souza delaying the inevitable.
In the 12th minute top scorer Viktor Gyökeres looked certain to score, but was denied by a diving save from Souza, the tall goalkeeper immediately getting down well to stop the follow-up effort from Trincão.
Soon afterwards Pote was a whisker away from scoring against his former team, his shot from the top of the box whistling just past the post.
Gonçalves then missed a glorious opportunity to open the scoring, latching onto a poor back pass from João Correia, but with only Souza to beat, the goalkeeper again came out on top.
Chaves at last began to stem Sporting’s forward momentum and looked set to get to the interval all square, but Paulinho had other ideas. A corner in the 43rd minute was not dealt with by the Chaves defence, the ball falling at the feet of the Sporting No20 who couldn’t miss from point-blank range.
Trincão thunderbolt
Things quickly went from bad to worse for Chaves as two goals early in the second half ended any doubts about the result. In the 51st minute Nuno Santos crossed low towards the penalty spot where Trincão unleashed a tremendous first-time shot into the top corner with his left foot.
Five minutes later and 2-0 became 3-0 as hesitant defending by the hosts in the box gave Pote the chance to score for the third match running, his shot beating Souza with the aid of a deflection.
The visitors took their foot off the pedal, but still looked the most likely team to score, Pote’s cross-shot tipped over the bar by the overworked Souza and Gyökeres then denied by the Brazilian goalkeeper in the 77th minute.
Chaves created their one and only goal-scoring opportunity in stoppage time, but Héctor Hernandez misdirected his header well wide from a promising position.
Opposing fortunes
Sporting reach the halfway stage of the season with 14 victories, 1 draw and 2 defeats from their 17 matches and remain in poll position to win their second championship title in four seasons under Amorim.
As for Chaves, the trasmontanos are in desperate need of a reboot if they are to avoid relegation, the northerners lying bottom of the pile in the standings and four points adrift of safety.
By Tom Kundert
Goals:
[1-0] Paulinho, 43’
[2-0] Francisco Trincão, 51’
[3-0] Pote, 56’
