The short trip north of Lisbon to take on Alverca resulted in a routine 4-1 win to reclaim second place in the standings and keep Sporting’s faint hopes of a third straight Primeira Liga title alive.
Pedro Gonçalves was the star of the show, opening the scoring with a typically precise shot midway through the first half.
Luis Suárez smashed in a second goal shortly after the break, and Geny Catamo made the game safe by rifling a firm shot low into the corner of the net in the 68th minute.
Alverca pulled a goal back through Marezi late on, but Pote had the last word, scoring his second and Sporting’s fourth goal of the game direct from a free-kick.
It was not all good news for Sporting however, as Nuno Santos, who has only recently returned after almost one and a half years out injured, left the pitch in tears in the first half after picking up what appeared a muscle tear.
Benfica may be out of Europe and out of the cups, but 2025/26 may yet prove fruitful for the Eagles who are still alive in the Primeira Liga title race.
A 3-0 win against Vitória this afternoon in Lisbon cut the deficit to leaders Porto to four points, with the Dragons facing a tough assignment in Braga tomorrow. Benfica also leap three points clear of city rivals Sporting, although the Lions have two games in hand.
That said, the margin of victory does not tell the story of the match with the visitors competing well for most of the 90 minutes and creating several chances to score.
But defensive mistakes proved costly. Cheap losses of the ball by Samu and Beni Mukendi were taken advantage of by Ricardo Ríos, who provided assists for Gianluca Prestianni and Pavlidis to score.
Beni, who has enjoyed a highly positive season, endured a miserable match from an individual point of view and compounded his earlier error by scoring an own goal to seal Vitória’s fate.
Mourinho and the importance of correctly applying pressure:
“The first two goals resulted from us applying pressure high up the pitch which we organised well and which we had worked on all week. But from the midway point of the first half, Vitória positioned their players intelligently, in a different way, which made things tough for us.
“During half time we showed a good selection of images of the first half, analysed them, and defined the right timing to apply pressure and we got control back. The second goal killed the game.
“In the last part of the match, with our fresh substitutes on, we again applied high pressure, despite being 3-0 up. We could have scored more but that would have been tremendously unjust for Vitória.”
FC Porto set up a Europa League quarter-final against Nottingham Forest – now coached by Vítor Pereira who led the Blue and Whites to two successive league titles a decade ago – thanks to a 2-0 victory over Stuttgart at the Estádio do Dragão tonight.
A goal in each half by William Gomes and Victor Froholdt resulted in a 4-1 aggregate victory over the Germans, but for a long time it was closer than the scoreline suggests.
Thiago Silva reached the incredible landmark of 1000 professional games in his career tonight. (Photo: Diogo Cardoso/Getty Images)
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Porto were grateful to a fantastic performance from goalkeeper Diogo Costa. The Portugal No1 made two miraculous saves among a hatful of excellent stops to thwart an extremely offensive Stuttgart side.
As has been his wont in recent weeks, Porto coach Francesco Farioli rotated his team heavily as the Dragons remain in the hunt for three trophies. The Italian coach made eight changes in relation to the starting XI that beat Moreirense 3-0 on Sunday.
Thiago Silva plays 1000th game
One of the changes was a recall for veteran Brazilian centre-back Thiago Silva, who, days after losing his mother, took his place in the line-up for the 1000th game of his professional career.
Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Stuttgart made their intentions clear from the start, attacking with aggression and in numbers, happy to take a risk by leaving their back line three against three.
Truth be told, it was the right approach as only an inspired display by Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa prevented the visitors from at least levelling up the tie by half time.
Diogo Costa at his brilliant best
Julian Chabot, Chris Fuhrich (twice) and Bilal El Khannouss were all denied by Costa, one flying save from Fuhrich in particular an extraordinary piece of goalkeeping, while Deniz Undav also contrived to miss a glaring chance for the Germans.
Porto were happy to rely on the counter-attack, and although they broke away on only a few occasions, the hosts always carried danger when they did so.
Midway through the first half, Zaidu and Borja Sainz combined in a rapid break and the ball fell to William Gomes to knock the ball into the net from close range.
The goal gave Porto a comfortable two-goal buffer on aggregate, but the pattern of the game did not change, with Stuttgart continuing to pour forward, their pressure increasing at the start of the second half as they laid siege to the Porto goal
Diogo Costa came up big again in the 54th minute, pulling off an astounding reflex save to somehow deflect Undav’s shot away for a corner.
Froholdt rocket
Danish midfielder Victor Froholdt then decided it was his turn to shine. The 20-year-old has enjoyed a highly impressive debut season at Porto and after some typically tenacious play to keep possession of the ball on the edge of the box he let fly with a dazzling left-foot shot that fizzed into the top corner of the net.
Braga’s record scorer Ricardo Horta added two more goals to his collection
An authoritative performance saw Braga turn around their Europa League tie in style against Ferencvaros this afternoon.
The Guerreiros lost 2-0 to the Hungarian champions in Budapest last week, but it was a different story in northern Portugal with four unanswered goals resulting in a 4-2 aggregate win.
An unusual kick-off time of 3.30pm on a working day did not stop a decent crowd of around 15,000 spectators turning up at the Quarry and the home fans were rewarded for their loyalty.
Deadly duo combine again
Usual suspects Rodrigo Zalazar and Ricardo Horta combined to break the Hungarians’ resistance early doors, the Uruguayan midfielder crossing perfectly for captain Horta to tap in from close range.
Soon afterwards Florian Grillitsch shot from the edge of the box and Ferencvaros goalkeeper Dávid Gróf made a hash of his attempted save, the ball squirming under his body and into the net. Fifteen minutes gone and the visitors’ advantage had been wiped out.
Such was Braga’s dominance it was only a matter of time before Carlos Vicens’ side took the lead.
Gróf saved well from a Horta lob, but he could do nothing in the 34th minute when Pau Victor’s cute through ball released Gabri Martínez, who, one-on-one against the goalkeeper, made no mistake.
Captain fantastic
Any doubts about who would be making progress in the competition were dispelled soon after half time when Ricardo Horta scored a superb goal, smashing a shot in off the post on the turn, with Pau Victor picking up his second assist of the match.
Braga took their foot off the pedal and it needed a fine save from Lukas Hornicek, diving full-length to his right, to prevent Júlio Romão’s excellent long-range effort from finding the back of the net.
Ricardo Horta, Braga captain:
“Was it easy? No, it wasn’t. We had to run a lot and that’s what we were lacking in the game over there. They won a lot of second balls [in the first leg] but today it was us who had more of the ball. In the second half we were a bit tired, but the goals had already been scored and it was a matter of managing the game in the best way possible.
“How far can we go in the Europa League? I don’t know. First of all, we’re going to enjoy this win. Turning around a tie when you’re losing by two goals is very difficult, but we did it. We don’t know who we’ll be playing next yet, but when the time comes, we’ll be ready for them.”
Greeks or Spaniards await
Braga will play the winner of the tie between Panathinaikos and Real Betis. The Greek side are leading after winning the first leg 1-0 in Athens. The second leg in Seville will be played tomorrow.
Sporting fans have had some memorable European nights in recent times, with last season’s 4-1 victory over Manchester City and the 2-1 win over PSG in January still fresh in the memory, but tonight’s effort against Bodø/Glimt arguably topped both those performances.
Trailing 3-0 from the first leg last week, the Portuguese champions simply pummelled the Norwegians into submission with a display of non-stop attacking football (38 shots, 16 corners!), winning 5-0 after extra time to set up a quarter-final meeting with Arsenal.
Sporting and their fans in perfect communion after a monumental win for the Lions. Also great to see Sporting fans give Bodø/Glimt and their fans a huge ovation, fully deserved after their own brilliant run in the competition. pic.twitter.com/4oVUFpFQjU
It is the first time Sporting have reached the last eight of Europe’s premier club competition in its current Champions League format, having achieved the feat once before, in 1982/83, when it was still known as the European Cup.
Sporting coach Rui Borges had said his team needed a perfect performance to turn around the tie, and the Lions set about Bodø – who had won five straight games in the Champions League – like a team possessed.
Maxi Araújo with a performance for the ages
The energy and enterprise of the Lisbon outfit was personified in the magnificent display by man-of-the-match Maxi Araújo. The Uruguayan left-back was at the heart of all of Sporting’s best attacking moments in a whirlwind start.
Francisco Trincão twice, Luis Suárez and Pedro Gonçalves all spurned presentable chances as Sporting pinned back Bodø and opened them up several times in the first 20 minutes. But somehow it remained 0-0. That “perfect performance” Borges had talked about seemed to have just one missing ingredient – putting away the multiple chances created.
The visitors, as been characteristic of their superb Champions League, were not afraid to commit plenty of men forward when they counter-attacked, but they failed to create danger like they had done in Norway. However, it seemed they had weathered the storm as Sporting’s attacking momentum slowed down.
Inácio breaks the deadlock
But in the 35th minute, goal-scoring defender Gonçalo Inácio rose highest at a corner to head into the net and give Sporting and their fans renewed hope. It was Inácio’s 23rd goal for Sporting in his 250th game for the Lions.
Bodø almost equalised soon afterwards from the same method, Odin Bjortuft heading against the bar from a corner, with Morten Hjulmand - the Sporting captain back to his very best - making a vital interception and clearing the ball away from the danger area in the ensuing scramble.
Sporting continued on the front foot after the break but were finding it more difficult to carve out chances. Catamo, Hjulmand and Fresneda tried their luck without seriously threatening Nikita Haikin’s goal.
Pote scores – the comeback is on!
The crucial second goal came on the hour mark. Catamo released Luis Suárez with a fabulous vertical pass, the Colombian racing forward and crossing perfectly for Pedro Gonçalves to fire home.
There was a palpable injection of energy in the stands and on the pitch, with Borges making sure Sporting kept up the momentum by bringing on Zeno Debast, Nuno Santos and Daniel Bragança for Eduardo Quaresma, Gonçalves and Morita.
Sporting continued to pour forward and soon they had levelled the tie on aggregate. Luis Suárez showed nerves of steel to score from the penalty spot after a handball by Bjorkan.
The Lions smelt blood and were close to going into the lead for the first time in the tie on several occasions, Debast and Trincão forcing Haikin into excellent saves and Nuno Santos desperately unlucky to see his fierce shot bounce back off the post.
Bodø/Glimt somehow survived until the 90 minutes were up, meaning extra time was on the menu with the tie all square at 3-3 on aggregate.
Sporting would not be denied though, and from their first attack when the game restarted Maxi Araújo took advantage of good approach play by Bragança and Trincão to fire into the net.
Suddenly the match changed, with Sporting now content to hold possession and slow down the pace of the game, which they did intelligently. As the clock clicked down towards the final whistle the home team managed to keep play near the corner flag of Bodø’s goal for lengthy periods, winning a succession of throw-ins.
Nel puts by cherry on the cake
Bodø finally broke out of the stranglehold to try and launch a last desperate attack but it would be Sporting who found the net again, young substitute Rafael Nel firing into the roof of the net after being set up neatly by Bragança.
The José Alvalade stadium, which had been bouncing all night, reached a crescendo of jubilation as Sporting’s fans celebrated an epic comeback in communion with their players and staff.
