Sid Lowe was at the Estádio José Alvalade. His report has landed, and here it is. Thanks for reading this MBM.
Antonio Conte speaks to BT. “It is a difficult result. When you lose, you are not happy. The game was in the balance during the second half. We could have scored, and we tried to win the game. But in the last ten minutes we can do much better. They score with a corner, then we conceded the second goal after the 90 minutes. It’s a pity, a difficult game for sure. We tried to get a win but in the end we lost. You have to try to fill the box and to be accurate, to go strong and attack the goal. We had two or three situations where we could do much better. Now we try to rest and think about the next game in the Premier League.”
Marcus Edwards talks to BT Sport. “"It feels great. Winning like that at the end, after we put in a hard shift, we couldn’t be happier. We deserved it. We showed how we can play. It was a strange feeling playing against Spurs, I was there for so long. It was good to see people I know, the coaching staff and some players as well. It’s a proper family environment we have here, I couldn’t be happier. But England is my home, so of course I want to come back one day.” And is he thinking about an England call-up? “It’s not crossed my mind. I just focus on what I’m doing here. Of course it would be nice!”
Wow. Both teams had plenty of chances. Both contributed to a slow-burning but ultimately highly entertaining match. A draw wouldn’t have been unfair, and Spurs will rue how most of their good chances fell to Emerson. But Sporting’s threat grew as the second half wore on. Pedro Porro nearly scored in the last minute with a sensational curler. Paulinho converted an almost impossible-to-defend Goncalves corner, then Arthur Gomes put the cherry on the cake – the cinnamon on the pastel de nata – with that late solo run. Throw in Marcus Edwards’ first-half homage to Diego Maradona, and this has turned out to be quite the statement from Sporting. Look!
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sporting | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 3 | Marseille | 1 | -2 | 0 |
| 4 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 1 | -3 | 0 |
FULL TIME: Sporting 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Sporting take control of Group D, shocking Spurs with two very late – but very fine – goals!
90 min +4: Conte responds to that goal – scored on European debut by Gomes – by taking a meaningful swig of water.
GOAL! Sporting 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Gomes 90+3)
Paulinho flicks the ball down the left for Gomes, who has only just arrived on the scene. Gomes enters the box, swans past Romero, then nutmegs Emerson. He reaches the corner of the six-yard box, and whips a shot across Lloris and in. What a late, late double whammy!
Updated
90 min +2: The board goes up for three added minutes, though the game hasn’t restarted yet. Edwards and Santos make way for Gomes and Esgaio.
GOAL! Sporting 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Paulinho 90)
But here it is! Alexandropoulos rakes a diagonal pass towards Porro on the right touchline. He bursts infield, through as much as past Perisic, then opens his body on the edge of the D. He curls towards the top left. Lloris claws the shot out brilliantly, at the expense of a corner. Goncalves curls in viciously from the left. Paulinho rises at the near stick, and flashes a header across Lloris and into the top right!
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88 min: Not yet.
86 min: Kulusevski hares down the inside-left channel and cuts back into the box, instigating a brief game of pinball. Sporting eventually clear their lines. Can anyone find a late winner?
85 min: Ugarte latches onto a loose Hojbjerg pass and drives at the Spurs defence. Hojbjerg, having made the mistake, and with his team-mates out of position, takes the booking by bowling Ugarte to the floor. Porro swings the free kick in from the right, and it’s a doddle for Lloris.
83 min: Porro drives down the right, dummies a couple of times, and eventually wins a corner off Perisic. Porro takes himself. The corner is half cleared, then Santos’s speculative long-range thrike is blocked.
81 min: Emerson goes in the book now, for tugging away at the shirt of Santos.
80 min: Edwards scurries down the middle of the park and slips a pass wide right for Porro, who only just gets a cross away before the ball rolls out for a goal kick. Easy for Lloris in the end, but Spurs were a little out of formation there. An earlier cross may have caused problems.
78 min: Emerson goes over in the Sporting area in the environs of Ugarte. He claims a penalty, but turns out he was offside anyway. Not sure there was too much contact, either. The offside flag may have saved him a yellow for simulation.
76 min: Before the free kick can be taken, Paulinho comes on for Trincao. Then the set piece is half cleared, but only to Kulusevski out on the left. Kulusevski curls towards the near post, where Richarlison sends a diving header wide of the post.
75 min: Kulusevski barrels his way down the right and reaches the byline. Just before he enters the box, Reis comes across and unambiguously scythes him down. Booking, and a free kick just to the right of the Sporting box near the byline.
74 min: Spurs commit quite a few players forward in attack. Emerson swings a cross in from the right. Nowhere near any of his team-mates. Easy pickings for Adan.
73 min: Both teams make a change. Alexandropoulos comes on for Morita, while Kulusevski replaces Son.
71 min: Perisic drops a shoulder to make ground down the left and fires a wonderful low cross through the six-yard box. Kane is inches away from meeting it at the far stick with a telescopic leg. Both teams are going for the winner; here’s to an entertaining final 20 or so.
Updated
70 min: Davies dawdles and allows Edwards to barge him out of the road at the expense of a corner. It’s swung in from the right and half cleared. Morita swivels and creams a volley goalwards. The ball can’t make it through a thicket of players and twangs clear, but what venom! That would have taken the net off.
69 min: Edwards skedaddles down the left and fizzes a low ball into the Spurs six-yard box. There’s nobody in green and white waiting to prod home. Spurs half clear. Trincao, his back to goal, juggles and bicycle kicks, but not with any real conviction. Lloris claims.
67 min: Goncalves scampers after a long pass down the left. He switches feet, cuts infield, and looks for the bottom right. From 25 yards, he was showing an awful lot of ambition. Easy for Lloris.
65 min: Sporting have settled a little, and appear to have contained Tottenham’s immediate post-restart verve.
63 min: London Buses dept. You wait over an hour for the first yellow, then within 120 seconds, Morita follows Bentancur into the book for a similarly professionally-minded check on Son.
61 min: Bentancur cops the first yellow card of the match for a fairly cynical and agricultural clip on the in-flight Goncalves’ heel.
60 min: Sporting haven’t done an awful lot since the restart. Antonio Conte knows how to deliver a half-time team-talk all right.
58 min: Richarlison sashays in from the right and goes for the low curler towards the bottom left. The ball flies harmlessly wide of the post, and the keeper had it covered anyway.
56 min: A little bit of time and space for Edwards to the left of the D. Not that much, though, and his shot is quickly blocked by Dier. That first-half run, though! “Systems, transitions, positional discipline, automatisms ... just when you think top level football is starting to have all the predictability of a Netflix algorithm, a player like Edwards does something like that,” coos Oliver Dungey. “If it’s really true that Edwards never made it to the Spurs first team squad because his time-keeping was ‘erratic’, would any other Spurs fans like to chip in to buy him a watch?”
55 min: To be fair to Kane, picking out Son in the middle wouldn’t have been the easiest task. Son was free on the spot, but there were two Sporting defenders in the road. You can forgive Kane for backing himself to score instead.
54 min: Kane strides into the Sporting box from the left wing. With Son in space in the middle, he opts to shoot across Adan and towards the top right instead. It’s a fine effort, but one parried by Adan. The ball pings back off Reis and into the keeper’s arms.
52 min: Another free kick for Spurs in Sporting territory. Son slips it down the inside-right channel for Kane, who can’t quite work enough space to get a proper shot away. An impressive start to the second half from Spurs.
51 min: That’s three big chances that have fallen to Emerson. Had just one of them fallen to Kane, Son or Richarlison, you’d fancy Spurs to have bagged at least a couple.
49 min: Emerson again! Spurs win a free kick inside the Sporting half. Kane takes, and, initially shaping to belt it the other way, sends a disguised diagonal ball towards Emerson, bursting clear into the Sporting box on the right. Emerson’s shot, towards the bottom right, is kneed away unconventionally by Adan. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
Updated
48 min: Kane crosses long from the left. Emerson rises at the far post. He’s beaten the challenging Santos all ends up, and sends a header down and back up towards the top right. Adan claws away, just in time.
47 min: An understated start to the second half.
Sporting get the second half underway. No changes.
Anyone fancy reliving the Maradona goal that Marcus Edwards very nearly recreated? That time Terry Butcher, like Eric Dier today, came back for a second helping of pain? Of course you do.
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HALF TIME: Sporting 0-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Hugo Lloris, you spoilsport. Spurs fans will understandably demur, but what an awful shame that Edwards run didn’t end in success. It would have been a solo goal for the ages!
45 min +1: Edwards picks up the ball to the right of the centre circle, his back to goal. He spins away from three men, beating Dier twice and leaving him sliding around on the turf, and sets off on a Maradonaesque dribble upfield. It’s a sensational run! He waltzes past Perisic, the ball glued to his toe. He then one-twos with Trincao, before reaching the edge of the six-yard box, swanning past Romero, and poking towards the bottom right. Lloris blocks with his feet, the ball luckily squirting wide for a corner. That would have been one hell of a goal! Many similarities to El Diego’s famous run against England in 1986. Yep, that good.
Updated
45 min: There will be two added minutes. Not entirely sure what for, but there it is.
44 min: Yep, a scrappy end to this first half.
42 min: Richarlison puts the ball in the Sporting net! But it won’t count. Kane, quarterbacking from deep, flicks a lovely pass down the inside-left channel. Richarlison is clear. He rounds Adan to the left, then slots. But he was clearly miles offside, and the flag goes up accordingly.
40 min: Ugarte attempts to release Trincao down the inside-right channel, but seriously overcooks the pass. Goal kick. It’s becoming a bit scrappy.
38 min: Son gets to the byline down the left and cuts back for Hojbjerg, who prepares to send an effort goalwards, only for Santos, tracking back, to read the danger and head clear, just in time.
36 min: Edwards skitters down the right, glides infield, then hoicks a manic shot miles over the bar from 20 yards. On the subject of Edwards, here’s Luiz Avelar: “You mentioned that Sporting are featuring Marcus, a product of Spurs academy. (We are very happy with him, by the way!) However, you forgot to mention that Spurs are also featuring a product of Sporting’s academy: Eric Dier. Dier spent almost ten years at Sporting’s A academy since eight years of age.”
34 min: Kane rolls a clever reverse pass down the inside-right channel for Richarlison, who rolls to the left for Son. Unselfish, although Adan was bearing down on him. However Son can’t slot before being closed down by Porro, and the flag goes up for offside anyway. A few Sporting hearts in mouths there, I’ll be bound.
32 min: Spurs win a corner on the left. Son takes. Adan punches. Bentancur drags a dismal shot miles wide left. This is better from Spurs, though, after a period during which Sporting had begun to take control.
30 min: An absurd situation, as Emerson whips a low cross through the Sporting six-yard box from the right. Five Sporting defenders, plus the keeper, fail to deal with the ball as it whistles through the danger zone and out for a throw. Son flings it back in. Again Sporting fail to deal with it, and a sharp striker like Kane or Richarlison would surely slam home from six yards. But it falls to Emerson, who can’t connect properly, allowing Adan to eventually claim.
28 min: Trincao grooves his way down the right before cutting back for Porro, who blooters a wild cross out for a goal kick. This game isn’t awful, and it isn’t great.
26 min: Some good end-to-end fun. First up, Richarlison meets Perisic’s left-wing cross, but his downward header at the far stick is weak and easy for Adan in the Sporting goal. Sporting counter through the lively Edwards, and Trincao lines one up from the edge of the D. He drags his shot well wide right.
Updated
24 min: Edwards spins on the spot and turns away from three Spurs players in a nanosecond. Sensational skill, only slightly spoiled when he then miscontrols while accelerating away.
22 min: Inacio shovels a pass down the inside-right channel in the hope of releasing Goncalves. A better ball would have seen Spurs in trouble, with a lot of space down that side of the field, but the delivery is heavy and sails out for a goal kick.
20 min: Sporting keep hold of the ball. Spurs keep holding their shape.
18 min: A few waves of warm applause as Sporting respond with some possession of their own. They probe down both flanks. Santos looks particularly up for it down the left. Spurs hold their shape, but the hosts are slowly beginning to assert some home-field authority.
16 min: A period of attractive but ultimately futile possession for Spurs, who ping it around nicely before running out of ideas in the final third.
14 min: Santos probes down the left. His low cross is met by Morita, who takes a fresh-air swipe, allowing Dier and Emerson to close the door. Sporting look lively whenever they choose to spring forward.
12 min: Sporting stroke it around the middle of the park to little effect. The Estádio José Alvalade is nevertheless bouncing. A great atmosphere in Lisbon, even though the early kick-off time means the stadium isn’t completely full.
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10 min: Davies and Perisic combine cutely down the left, and look to have won another Spurs corner, but the flag goes up for offside during the move, correctly as it turns out.
8 min: Lloris claims the Sporting corner. A nice, open feel to the early stages.
7 min: Former Spurs lad Edwards dribbles at pace down the inside-right channel. He draws a couple of defenders and slips a pass to Goncalves to the left of the D. The pass pushes Goncalves wider than he’d like, but he still threads a clever low diagonal effort towards the bottom right. It’s heading in, and Lloris has to fingertip around the post. Great football all round.
5 min: Bentancur takes a whack from distance. His effort is charged down by Inacio, who bravely takes the shot square in the fruit bowl. He goes down immediately and play is stopped so he can take inventory, and a breath.
3 min: … a game of pinball breaks out in the six-yard box. Sporting eventually clear their lines, but this is a confident start from the visitors.
2 min: Spurs are on the front foot immediately, and Perisic wins a corner. From which …
Spurs get the ball rolling. Plenty of noise now.
One of those aforementioned minutes is spent in silence, in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. Well, not completely in silence. It’s not particularly well observed by some of the home fans, who make a smattering of noise, but then it’s not Portugal’s royal family, and while you can make it a matter of manners, they’re not obliged. The majority respect the moment, to be fair.
Updated
The teams are out! Sporting wear their famous green and white stripes, while Spurs are draped in insert-marketing-department-approved-adjective-here blue. A quick blast of Zadok the Priest (Version) and we’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Antonio Conte, giving off extremely laid-back vibes, speaks to BT Sport. “Richarlison played very well against Marseille and also against Fulham. I think it is right to pick him to play from the start. It is always important to get a good result in this competition. It is very short. You don’t get many games to get points. For this reason, every game is really important. To play against a Portuguese team is always difficult, especially away. The atmosphere in this stadium is not easy, there is a lot of noise, and we have to be good from the start. We have to manage the situation very well.”
A reminder of how Group D looks after Matchday 1. Here’s the Guardian match report of Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Marseille, and there’s a wee bit on Sporting’s 3-0 demolition of Eintracht downpage here.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sporting | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 3 | Marseille | 1 | -2 | 0 |
| 4 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 1 | -3 | 0 |
Tottenham make one change to the starting XI named for last week’s 2-0 win against Marseille. Ben Davies replaces Clement Lenglet, who drops to the bench.
Sporting Lisbon’s XI features former Spurs academy player Marcus Edwards. David Hytner has more on a young striker who had always seemed destined to feature in a showpiece Tottenham Champions League tie – albeit not in a Sporting shirt – below.
The teams
Sporting: Adan, Inacio, Coates, Matheus Reis, Porro, Morita, Ugarte, Nuno Santos, Trincao, Edwards, Goncalves.
Subs: Alexandropoulos, Israel, Rochinha, Issahaku, Paulinho, Andre Paulo, Arthur Gomes, Ricardo Esgaio, Marsa, Nazinho.
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Romero, Dier, Davies, Emerson, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Perisic, Richarlison, Son, Kane.
Subs: Doherty, Skipp, Sanchez, Gil Salvatierra, Sessegnon, Forster, Kulusevski, Spence, Tanganga, Bissouma, White, Lenglet.
Referee: Srdjan Jovanovic (Serbia).
Preamble
Sporting are one of Portugal’s domineering big three, but unlike their all-conquering rivals Benfica and Porto, they haven’t made much of an impression in the European Cup. Their most successful tilt at Uefa’s premier prize came in 1983, when they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Real Sociedad. Other than that, there’s very little worth noting. Beaten in the first round by Bob Shankly’s Dundee in 1962. Thrashed 5-0 at home last autumn by Manchester City. These are slim pickings. At least they’ve got memories of the 1964 Cup Winners’ Cup to keep them warm at night.
Last year’s thrashing by the hand of City came in the Round of 16. It was only the second time Sporting had made it through the groups, the first being 2008-09, whereupon they were spanked 12-1 on aggregate by Bayern Munich. The moral of this story? It’s either be careful what you wish for, or that Sporting are currently on the up. Let’s go for the latter, as they beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 and Besiktas 4-0 at home last season, to finish second in their group, even if they did go down 5-1 when Ajax came to town. More pertinently, they trounced Europa League champions Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 away last week, and currently top Group D, one goal ahead of tonight’s visitors Spurs, who eventually saw off Marseille last week with two late Richarlison headers.
Spurs are nevertheless expected to prevail this evening. “Tottenham are the clear favourites in the group,” says Sporting coach Ruben Amorim. “We will have to be wary because they will punish us for the slightest mistake.” By contrast, Antonio Conte is “relaxed” and in the mood to take advantage of the weekend off. “The postponement of the game against City has allowed me to change the idea of the team I had in mind,” he explains, perhaps ominously for tonight’s hosts. Will his team take charge of Group D with a win tonight? Or will it be Sporting who build on their impressive showing last week? Kick off is at 5.45pm BST. It’s on!
