Sporting nightmare goes on as Lions fall to 2-1 defeat in Brugge | OneFootball

How does a team go from being unbeatable (17W 1D 0L in 18 games), winning matches at a canter, playing wonderful football to the diametric opposite at the flick of a switch?

Okay, the switch in question has “Ruben Amorim OFF, João Pereira ON” written on it, but even accounting for the sudden loss of their coach, the manner in which the Portuguese champions appear to have forgotten how to play football is truly baffling.

Books may be written on the phenomenon in years to come. For now here is the report after another traumatic night for Sporting in Belgium and an attempt to describe what is going on at the Lisbon club.

Rejigged defence, Simões debut

Sporting’s new coach João Pereira, desperate to end a run of three straight defeat and prove his appointment was not a mistake, gave a recall to Eduardo Quaresma after a lengthy spell out injured and handed 17-year-old João Simões his full debut with central midfielders Daniel Bragança and Hidemasa Morita both out. Matheus Reis made the line-up at the last moment after Gonçalo Inácio got injured in the warmup.

The first three minutes were a throwback to the good times for Sporting. Passing the ball around patiently, accurately, the visitors pulled the hosts from one side of the pitch to the other, not giving them a sniff of the ball. Suddenly Hjulmand injected pace into the play with a penetrating vertical pass to Victor Gyökeres, the Swede turning and slipping in Maxi Araújo, the Uruguayan shooting against the post with Geny Catamo on hand to bang in the rebound. Three minutes gone and Sporting 1-0 up!

That was as good as it got for the Green and Whites.

Although Sporting initially remained in the ascendency, as has consistently happened in the recent poor run of results, they were failing to create any clear-cut chances.

The Belgians gradually clawed their way into the match and equalised in the 24th minute. Skov Olsen skipped past Araújo with alarming ease, crossed low into the box, Tzolis shot and the ball took a big deflection off Quaresma to leave Israel stranded. All square.

Sporting thought they had won a penalty in the very next minute, but VAR rectified the referee’s decision to transform the spot kick into a free kick on the edge of the box, which Gyökeres fired over the bar.

Sporting’s powderpuff attack

The rest of the match followed a similar pattern to Sporting’s defeats against Santa Clara and Moreirense in their last two outings. The Lions had plenty of the ball but it was sterile possession and it was their opponents who were by far the more incisive team when attacking.

Skov Olsen forced Sporting goalkeeper Israel into a scrambling save, before a nasty clash of heads between Quaresma and Tzolis necessitated the substitution of the former, St. Juste coming on, and the latter playing the rest of the match with blood, bandages and treatment a constant.

Israel produced a brave save from the impressively undeterred Tzolis on the stroke of half time. The lively Greek winger went desperately close to scoring again just before the hour mark, dribbling infield and shooting inches past the post.

Hayen proactive, Pereira less so

Roared on by their boisterous fans, Brugge coach Nicky Hayen made his move, bringing on Gustaf Nilsson, Chemsdine Talbi and later Casper Nielsen, while his counterpart João Pereira… sat in the dugout and looked on, eventually swapping Maxi Araújo for Ricardo Esgaio.

In the 84th minute Brugge took the lead. It was an excellent move involving two of the substitutes Nilsson and Nielsen – the latter scoring with aplomb – after being played in by a brilliant pass from the best player on the pitch, Brugge captain Vanaken.

Trincão had a late chance to grab an equaliser, and the inexplicably late introduction onto the pitch of Conrad Harder, in the 87th minute, briefly gave Sporting a spark up front but it was too little too late.

Amorim’s worst fears coming to fruition

In the maelstrom that was Ruben Amorim’s tumultuous switch from Sporting to Manchester United at the start of November, the coach confessed that he only had one fear. And it was not whether or not he would be a success in the English Premier League.

“My only fear is that this change causes Sporting to fail to achieve the goals we set ourselves at the start of the season – namely winning trophies and especially winning a second successive championship.”

As it stands, Sporting remain top of the table, albeit at the mercy of Benfica’s game in hand, but should the Lions continue to play with same lack of energy and dearth of ideas as shown in the last three weeks, Amorim’s words are set to become perversely prophetic.