Sporting 2-1 Arouca
Sporting were made to fight with ten men at home to Arouca for a 2-1 victory that sees the Lions lead the Primeira Liga table going into the international break, courtesy of a Hidemasa Morita second-half winner.
The Lisbon giants were on the front foot in the first half after Viktor Gyökeres’ opener but quickly saw their mission marred by a controversial 42nd-minute Ousmane Diomande red card.
Arouca introduced Sporting’s fears to reality with a second-half equaliser from Rafa Mújica, but that was later undone by Morita’s decisive 68th minute goal, placing the Lions a point clear at the top of the table with a 2-1 victory.
After the midweek defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League, the likes of Ricardo Esgaio and Sebastian Coates found themselves back in the XI, facing an Arouca side desperate to move out of the bottom three.
The visitors were able to keep Rúben Amorim’s men relatively quiet at the Alvalade until the 31st minute, where Marcus Edwards was alerted by Gyökeres’ movement in the box before feeding the Swede for a side-footed volley, placing the hosts a goal up.
Edwards was so close to providing the goods a second time from wide in the 39th minute, with his whipped cross evading four Sporting men desperate to direct the ball at goal and land a second for their team.
With the game seemingly in ‘the Green & Whites’’ control, Diomande’s controversial 42nd minute red card promised to throw a real spanner in the works after the referee judged that the defender had taken his arm to the face of his wailing opponent.
The scene was then set for Arouca to stun an agitated Alvalade crowd, early in the second half, as Mújica was able to head home just seven minutes into the second period and equalise against ten-man Sporting.
Amorim’s men took the fight back to Arouca, however, pulling themselves back up and in front of the contest after Morita finished Pedro Gonçalves’ low cross with finesse and precision in the 68th minute.
Between the sticks, Antonio Adán proved comfortable with the rare sightings of goal afforded to Arouca in the final minutes before the visitors succumbed to a quick break from Sporting to find themselves a man down too, following Rafael Fernandes’ dismissal.
The red card took the wind out of Arouca’s sails, enabling Sporting to hold on and rise back up to the top of the Primeira Liga table, a point above Benfica.
By Patrick Ribeiro
Sporting XI: Antonio Adán - Gonçalo Inácio, Sebastian Coates, Ousmane Diomande - Nuno Santos (Geny Catamo, 58’), Hidemasa Morita, Morten Hjulmand (Daniel Bragança, 82’), Ricardo Esgaio (Eduardo Quaresma, 58’) (Luis Neto, 88) - Pedro Gonçalves, Marcus Edwards (Matheus Reis, 45’), Viktor Gyökeres
Arouca XI: Ignacio de Arruabarrena - Javi Montero, Rafael Fernandes, Bogdan Milovanov (Jason, 45’) (André Bukia, 80’) - Morlaye Sylla, Costa, Uri Busquets (Pedro Santos, 45’), Tiago Esgaio - Cristo González, Alfonso Trezza (Miguel Puche, 76’), Rafa Mújica
