It was déjà vu for Sporting against Marseille in a forgettable Champions League night for the home supporters at the José Alvalade stadium. Just like in France one week ago, Sporting were a man down and two goals down early in the match.
Ricardo Esgaio picked up two yellow cards in quick succession and was sent off, the second leading to Marseille’s opener from the penalty spot, converted by Mattéo Guendouzi.
Alexis Sánchez soon doubled the French side’s lead and a second red card for Pedro Gonçalves in the second half completed a nightmare evening for the Lions.
Despite last week’s defeat to the same opponents, Sporting went into match top of Group D and with high hopes of taking a big stride towards the knockout phase of the competition. Goalkeeper Franco Israel came in for the suspended Antonio Adán, Pedro Porro was not yet deemed fit enough to start, Ricardo Esgaio taking the right wing-back role, and up front Paulinho was benched as Sporting went with the Trincão-Edwards-Pote front line.
With neither side initially able to make headway against two aggressive and well-organised defences, the opening minutes were marked by the loud jeers directed at former Benfica full-back Nuno Tavares. The boos were not linked to his former allegiances to Sporting’s city rivals, but rather his pre-match comments when he criticised Amorim for alleged insults thrown in his direction at the Velodrome.
Esgaio errs again
But it was Tavares and Marseille who drew first blood. Just three minutes after picking up a yellow card, Ricardo Esgaio, not the first time this season, gave away a cheap penalty with a reckless challenge. The impressive Amine Harit was quickest to a dangerous ball into the box, with Esgaio’s clumsy attempt to stop him leaving the referee in no doubt: penalty, a second yellow card and subsequent red.
Guendouzi made no mistake, striking a perfect spot kick hard and low that went in off the post leaving Israel, who guessed the right way, with no chance of saving it.
Amorim immediately made a change, bringing on Fatawu Issahaku to play at right wing-back and sacrificing midfielder Hidemassa Morita.
Marseille had their tails up, a powerful effort from distance by Alexis Sánchez stinging Israel’s fingers as he pushed it over the bar.
Sánchez had the ball in the net soon afterwards, knocking in from close range from Harit’s cross, but the celebrations were cut short by an offside flag. However, the VAR check proved fatal for Sporting as the goal was validated. Barely half and hour gone and Sporting were two goals and one man down.
Surprise substitutions
Amorim’s next moves were surprising, taking off Sebastián Coates and Marcus Edwards, replaced by José Marsà and Sotirios Alexandropoulos respectively. Unless there were reasons of a physical order for the changes, it appeared Amorim was throwing in the towel and/or aiming for damage limitation.
Trincão’s tame shot from range was as good as Sporting could muster in the first half, with Veretout’s effort from distance at the other end forcing Israel into a diving save.
At last it appeared Sporting would create real danger as Nuno Santos was set free but as he sped towards goal former Porto centre-back Chancel Mbemba did well to race back and snuff out the danger.
Amorim’s apparent lack of ambition in the match was further exemplified by his decision to take off Trincão for left wing-back Flávio Nazinho at the break, but Sporting started the second half positively, Matheus Reis’ shot deflected for a corner.
Nevertheless, the ten-man home team could not maintain any concerted pressure and were failing to make inroads into the Marseille defence. Amorim made his final substitution on the hour mark, bringing on Pedro Porro for Nuno Santos.
Red mist descends on Pote
Any faint hopes Sporting had of getting something from the match completely disappeared when Pedro Gonçalves contrived to get himself senselessly sent off. An over-physical challenge on Balerdi yielded a yellow card, with Pote then shown an immediate second yellow, presumably for something disagreeable said to the referee.
From that moment onwards, a slow-paced match lost all interest, Marseille opting to save energy and not chase further goals ahead of their big clash against PSG on the weekend.
A positive note for Sporting – perhaps the only one from the match – was another encouraging performance by young Spanish centre-back José Marsà and the never-say-die attitude of Manuel Ugarte, who refused to give anything other than 100% throughout the match in extremely trying circumstances.
Sporting must regroup quickly ahead of their trip to Tottenham Hotspur in a fortnight’s time, having dropped to third place in the group behind the English club and Marseille, with just one point separating the three teams.
by Tom Kundert, at Alvalade
Goals:
[0-1] Guendouzi (pen), 20’
[0-2] Alexis Sánchez, 31’
