Last season’s final turned into this season’s semifinals, the seventh classic for 2021/22 came with all accounts tied – and with increasingly marked individual disputes, as seen in the final confrontation between Max Landis and Williams. After a pass that was “cleaned up” in the first round of the play off with two victories with Imortal and Lusitânia, FC Porto and Sporting started at the Dragão Arena the fight for a place in the title decisions with the Blue and Whites trying to benefit from the home factor and the Lions looking to revalidate the trophy won last year.
The best appetizer for the playoff: Sporting breaks the invincibility of FC Porto at the Dragão Arena before the decisions
“We expect a game with a lot of physicality, a lot of energy and a lot of intensity. There will be a lot of emotions and I believe in a very fast game. Sporting’s strengths? The more physical game, the energy and the various ways they have to score points are some of their virtues. We have to be able to contain it and maintain constant for 40 min. Personally, there have been ups and downs and I haven’t done the season as regularly as I wanted due to injuries, but I feel pretty good.”
The third in a row, for the second time in history: Sporting beat FC Porto and return to the Portuguese Cup final
“We don’t disparage the other games, but these are the ones everyone wants to play. We want to win, we train and work for it. Training is always tough and competitive and as we were successful during the season, let’s hope it continues. FC Porto is a strong team offensively and defends well. We have to use our strengths and attack the weakest to achieve both victories. Injured players? That’s where the team has to step up. We are more cohesive and I feel that we are as united as possible for this final stretch of the League”, Diogo Araújo told Sporting TV, also speaking about the absences of Micah Downs and Tanner Omlid.
There weren’t two without three: FC Porto beat Sporting in free fall and moved up to second place in the League
After the first three league games had fallen into the hands of the Blue and Whites, with the Hugo dos Santos Cup semifinal for the lions in between, Sporting overcame their worst stage of the season (and the return of Travant). Williams after injury) and not only beat Porto’s unbeaten record at home at the end of the second phase of the League, but also won the semi-finals of the Portuguese Cup. Now, the classic was, above all, a meeting with two different faces, which ended as Sporting in front for a point in the interval but ended with an “outrage” by FC Porto in the second half, also making it the most unbalanced duel of the season and than he finished with an 87-68 lead.
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Source: Observadora
