Not only did Ruben Amorim refuse to speak English, prompting a wonderful whistle from journalist Gary Cotterill, he also hedged his bets ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Manchester City.
“If the result is very negative,” warned the Old Trafford head coach. “Expectations will go down and I don’t think that’s a bad starting point when you’re starting out Manchester United.”
The result, as it turned out, was quite positive. After a shaky start, Sporting broke aa Victory 4-1 over Pep Guardiola’s English champions, scoring twice in the first four minutes after Amorim’s half-time talk.
“I am fully aware that I will be judged as a coach in this match, and this match only,” Amorim sighed before the match. That inevitability was flagged as a negative by the studious head coach, ending four-and-a-half years of success for Sporting, but his side’s display in the 90-minute set on Tuesday contained many positive aspects
Most of Sporting’s tangible threat in midweek came through forward thrusts, or rather pushing forwards. The hosts were ready to get off the pitch at every change, invariably channeling almost every attack through the team. the in-demand striker, Viktor Gyokeres.
The burly Swede ran through City’s precarious offside trap inside the opening seven minutes only to slot his effort into Ederson’s gloves. When a more difficult opportunity presented itself half an hour later, Gyokeres made no mistake.
City have become increasingly vulnerable on the counter-attack this season, especially in the absence of the team’s central totem Rodri. Guardiola’s side only conceded an average of 0.6 shots from counter-attacks last season, but that figure has almost tripled this season. Bournemouth exposed these open wounds in a well deserved win last weekend and Amorim clearly – and sensibly – aimed his human wrecking ball at the same path of weakness.
It also helped that one of Europe’s most prolific players collapsed into the channel patrolled by poor Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, a 19-year-old centre-back making the first senior start of his career.
The Portuguese champions didn’t just target the teenager, but darted into empty spaces either side of an increasingly porous defense to inflict City’s heaviest defeat since a 5-2 rout against Leicester City in September 2020.
THE SCENES! 😳
Max Araújo puts Sporting ahead a few moments after the start of the second half 🎯
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/vVQYgcLKu1
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 5, 2024
The game was less than five minutes old when Hidemasa Morita was brought down on the edge of his own penalty area, giving Foden the chance to fire City ahead. It wouldn’t be the last cheap billing offered by a home team that suffered an uncharacteristically shaky start in front of their own fans.
Amorim can’t be blamed for the nervous passing of his players, but it has to be acknowledged that this approach needs to be continued. It was the considered and composed series of passes that attracted city striker from the second-half restart, pinging the ball with purpose down the left flank in a back-and-forth sequence that has become a Sporting signature under Amorim.
Pedro Goncalves left Mateo Kovacic on a spin and slotted advancing left-back Maximiliano Araujo into the box to finish off a dizzying flurry of passes 20 seconds after the restart. City’s first touch in the second half was when Ederson took the ball out of his net.
The Portuguese boss’ resolve may be further tested in Manchester. Erik ten Hag walked out after two games into his United tenure, indelibly marked by that 4-0 thrashing at Brentford in August 2022.
Speaking to a Bayern Munich fan club while coaching the Bavarian giants, Guardiola he emphasized how difficult it was to break a 5-4-1. “It’s not easy. It doesn’t matter what happened 75 years ago or in the next 50. If the opposing team has their players like that, it’s never easy.”
This system is easier to navigate when there is space between lines five and four. City had no shortage of flying left-footers looking to receive the ball in this dangerous rush of chances on Tuesday night, with Bernardo Silva, Foden and Savinho lurking with intent.
City were suffocating at the top in the first half, causing the loose seams of Sporting’s oddly spacious shape to open up. The visitors had 11 shots on Sporting’s three in the first 45 minutes that Guardiola rightly described as “fantastic” and still finished the game with twice as many efforts as their hosts.
Sporting tightened up after the break, another consequence of what must have been a half-time shout from Amorim, but Bernard still found space to exchange passes with Rico Lewis and win a penalty for City. On a night when Sporting’s number nine was relentlessly ruthless, City’s Erling Haaland proved uncharacteristically wasteful; the missed penalty was their fifth and final missed opportunity.
Amorim was wary of defeat before Tuesday’s game, but perhaps even more concerned about a potential win. A Sporting CP victory, he warned, would lead to the unwanted slogan of the “new Alex Ferguson”. Well, the original Ferguson faced Guardiola twice in the Champions League and lost both times, Amorim will always be able to point to that famous victory.
