• Europa League

Sporting 3-1 Istanbul Basaksehir

Sporting put their patchy form behind them to produce an excellent performance in Lisbon tonight against Basaksehir Istanbul and take a big step towards the last 16 of the Europa League. Goals from Sebastián Coates, Andraz Sporar (his first for the club) and Luciano Vietto gave the hosts a comfortable and richly deserved lead with less than an hour played. Sporting created enough chances in this period to put the tie to bed. 

But Edin Visca's penalty in the 77th minute will give the visitors hope of turning the result around next week in the Turkish capital.

• Benfica
• Pizzi
• Europa League
• Bruno Lage
• Shakhtar Donetsk
• Luis Castro
• Alan Patrick

Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 Benfica

Benfica will have a one-goal deficit to overturn back in Portugal after losing 2-1 to Luís Castro’s Shakhtar Donetsk in the Europa League’s last 32 first leg in Ukraine, this evening.

After the warnings in the first period, the Lisbon outfit were punished by Alan Patrick’s opener in the 55th minute, having seen the Ukrainians enjoy their fair share of possession up until the Brazilian’s placed effort.

A curious VAR review moments later saw Tomás Tavares lose out on a goal on his European debut and Benfica earn a penalty in the same swoop, converted by Pizzi to make it 1-1.

The Eagles’ leveller was short-lived, however, after Viktor Kovalenko placed Castro’s men back in command of the tie, sealing a 2-1 victory in Kharkiv.

Portugal have four teams in the Europa League – more than any other nation – as the competition resumes this Thursday. While some are dreaming of a repeat of 2010/11 season, when three of the four semi-finalists were Portuguese, leading to an all-Portuguese final, there is also a realistic possibility that the Liga NOS representation could be severely cut in this round.

All four ties are evenly balanced of paper. The early kickoffs see the two Lisbon teams in action as Sporting host Turkish outfit Istanbul Basaksehir while Benfica travel to Ukraine to take on runaway league leaders, Shakhtar Donetsk. Later on, Portugal’s northern representatives take centre stage, with Porto and Braga both on the road, at Bayer Leverkusen and Rangers respectively. 

It may have gone under the radar, but this January, just like that, the deal was done. With a four-and-a-half-year contract signed at Benfica, the future career of Colombian winger Yony González looks set. Or is it?

Immediately after signing for the Portuguese champions, González signed another contract with Brazilian giants Corinthians on a one-year loan. Could the player be split as to where he wants to play his football? In this article, we will be looking into what we know so far about this very modern-day style of transfer.