Sporting 1-0 Porto
Sporting booked their place in the Taça de Portugal final with a penalty shootout victory at the Estádio José Alvalade. The Lions overturned the one-goal advantage Porto held through the first leg with a late goal from Sebastián Coates.
Iván Marcano missed his spotkick and it fell to substitute Fredy Montero in the end to score the winning penalty to send Sporting to the Estádio Nacional to try and complete a domestic cup double against surprise finalists Aves.
FC Porto took a 1-0 lead to Alvalade for the second leg of the Taça de Portugal after a famous victory last weekend on the other side of the segunda circular against Benfica on the weekend. The winner of the latest clash of the titans in the Portuguese capital would face Aves in the Jamor final, who needed extra time to beat a resilient Caldas side.
The new league leaders Porto made a few changes to their team with Ricardo Pereira moving further forward in the place of Moussa Marega meaning Maxi Pereira took his place at right-back.
For Sporting André Pinto missed game after picking up an injury in Sunday's action-packed clash with Belenenses. Luckily for Jesus, the injury doubt Jérémy Mathieu managed to prove his fitness and return to the line-up. Elsewhere Cristiano Piccini returned to replace Stefan Ristovski.
[To watch the match highlights click on the screen below]
This is the 5th meeting of the season between the two sides, Porto having won two and the other two games being draws, although one of those was won by Sporting via a penalty shootout afterwards.
Although this was a clássico by name it certainly wasn't by nature for the first 80 minutes or so. Instead we got a scrappy, stop-start midfield battle with Porto not at all looking troubled by Sporting's attack. It was a drab first half.
The battle continued in the second half, winger Gelson Martins looking like Sporting's only creative outlet with Bruno Fernandes not as his effective best. It's games like this when you feel Sporting's exhausting season (no team has played more matches this season) was starting to catch up to them.
Coates levels the tie
Sporting did finally make the breakthrough in the 85th minute and the game came alive at long last. Sebastián Coates' goal came through a corner when Iván Marcano's scuffed clearance fell kindly for the Uruguayan defender to fire in off the post.
Just seconds later Porto had the ball in the back of the net from a corner of their own. Diego Reyes felt like he had sent Sérgio Conceição to Jamor but referee Jorge Sousa determined that Felipe's earlier header onto the bar had in fact been from an offside position.
So it went to extra time. Sporting looked boosted by their goal and almost got another when Marcos Acuña's cross found Gelson Martins but the winger's shot went wide of Iker Casillas' post. Not long after that the Sporting substitutes almost combined for a goal when Stefan Ristovksi crossed low for Fredy Montero, but the Colombian couldn't get enough on the shot.
In the second half of extra time there was concern for Porto when Maxi Pereira and Seydou Doumbia accidentally clashed heads after a Montero cross. The Uruguayan was bleeding from the back of his head but was bandaged up and continued on.
A penalty shootout the difference
Yacine Brahimi almost won it for Porto with the last kick of the game as the ball bounced nicely for him to strike outside the area but his shot went agonisingly over the bar to force the game to penalties.
Porto coach Sérgio Conceição will have had flashbacks to earlier in the year when the two sides met in the Taça da Liga semi-final, when Sporting won that shootout.
The writing was on the wall for the Dragons immediately when Marcano hit the post with the very first penalty of the shootout. Despite the quality of goalkeepers - Iker Casillas and Rui Patrício - both sides managed to dispatch all of their remaining penalties. Sérgio Oliveira's spotkick brought it to 4-4 and it was down to Fredy Montero, who coolly sent Sporting into the Taça de Portugal final.
by Richard Cole
Sporting: Rui Patrício; Cristiano Piccini (stefan Ristovski, 72'), Sebastián Coates, Jérémy Mathieu, Fábio Coentrão (Fredy Montero, 76'); Rodrigo Battaglia, Bryan Ruiz; Gelson Martins, Bruno Fernandes, Marcos Acuña; Bas Dost (Seydou Doumbia, 106')
Porto: Iker Casillas; Maxi Pereira, Felipe, Iván Marcano, Alex Telles; Héctor Herrera, Otávio (Sérgio Oliveira, 76'), Óliver Torres (Diego Reyes, 84'); Ricardo Pereira, Yacine Brahimi; Tiquinho Soares (Vincent Aboubakar, 65')
Goals:
[1-0] Sebastián Coates. 85'
