Sporting CP Update: 3/2
- Updated: March 2, 2015
It was another terrible week for the Lions of Lisbon. In fact, it was probably the worst week of the season for them.
It started when left back Jefferson confronted team president Bruno de Carvalho over a denied transfer proposal from Dynamo Kiev. de Carvalho denied that Kiev ever made an offer for Jefferson. Jefferson called the club president a liar, and was swiftly demoted to the “B” team. Young Argentine Jonathan Silva started at left back against Wolfsburg and FC Porto.
On Thursday, they played Wolfsburg in the 2nd leg of the final 32 in the Europa League. They lost away in Germany 2-0 in the first leg. the second leg ended in a 0-0 tie, eliminating SCP 2-0 on aggregate. Sporting had more than enough quality scoring chances to tie this leg or even take a 3-0 lead. Biggest problem for the Lions other than Tanaka’s ability to finish? The Benaglio wall!! Just let the highlights show how frustrating this game was.
Getting eliminated from the Europa League was bad enough. And nothing would of been more satisfying than bringing that same effort against Wolfsburg, and beating a long-time rival, FC Porto, and close down that gap for 2nd place in the league standings. Instead they got their butts whooped good in Porto.
A Cristian Tello hat trick sunk Sporting 3-0. The Lions looked tired, and played with no spirit, no offensive creativity. Tobias Figueiredo learned a lesson in playing center back I’m sure he wont soon forget. Their next match will be against Nacional da Madeira in the first leg of the Portuguese cup semi finals, this Thursday. Next league match will be next Sunday against bottom of the standings Penafiel.
After this weekend’s results in the Portuguese Liga, the current standings are: Benfica-59 points, FC Porto-55 points, SCP-47 points, SC Braga-46 points. Third place is a Champions league playoff spot. Braga’s recent form in league play is hot after taking five straight league wins. They still have league games against Porto next week, Benfica the week after, and SCP during the second-to-last week of the season. All top four positions are wide open!
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