FC Porto had won the Championship for the third time and now wanted to do one more double in the sport, Benfica made history with the victory in the Europa League and was looking for another title but at the national level, Sporting finished the Championship in second place. place and wanted to break the fast of victories in the Portuguese Cup, where they are the team with the most victories. Matosinhos received the Final Four of the competition that would close the Portuguese handball calendar, with a derby between lions and reds in the semifinals to decide one of the finalists for Sunday’s final after a Verdiblanca victory and a draw in the League.
“Since we ended the Championship we have tried to focus our efforts on the dispute for a title as important as this one. Sporting has a tradition in this competition, which has been one of our goals since the beginning of the season. We know how difficult it is to play against Benfica. We managed to do it with some success in the Championship but they are coming off a historic victory and won an important title for Portuguese handball. We know of the positive phase they are going through, but for our part, the ambition to win means that there is no fatigue at the end of the season. It is a moment of maximum concentration and focus on what we want to bring to the game”, Ricardo Costa, coach of the lions, had highlighted in the preview.
“We continue with the same ambition, thinking that we have to win every game. We tied with Sporting in the final stretch of the Championship and failed against FC Porto. We don’t want to fail anymore. It will be difficult but we will try to win. It will be a very difficult match. We didn’t have much time to prepare for the game, we had the Europa League in between, but we have players focused on winning the European competition. If we can give anything, it is work, dedication and sacrifice, which are the values of Benfica and our team. We will fight to the maximum, with the players we have to try to win this Cup. We won a European title and we want a national title”, said the coach of the eagles, Chema Rodríguez.
However, the expected balance was shaken by what happened in the first 20 minutes, where Sporting got an advantage that allowed them to manage the game in a different way once again with the Costa brothers in an outstanding plan in attack (in addition to Manuel Gaspar in the goal) and mark a place in another final against FC Porto, who had previously defeated Madeira SAD 35-29 with eight goals from António Areia and seven from Pedro Cruz in a “directed” match in the first half (20-14).
The lions had a better start to the match, even reaching 4-1 in a seven-meter free kick scored by Francisco Costa in the eighth minute, in a phase in which the team played inferior due to the exclusion of Francisco Tavares. Sergey Hernández kept trying to keep his distance with a couple of important saves, but the Verdiblanca defense, an enormous Manuel Gaspar and a series of errors in passes and shots (along with Kukic’s individual marking) dug deeper and deeper. difference that was already six goals in the middle of the first half (9-3) and nine goals in the 20th minute (13-4). The exploration of the second line with Alexis Borges allowed Benfica to stabilize in offensive terms but Sporting went into the break with an advance of seven goals (18-11), with six goals from Martim Costa and four from Francisco Costa.
The second half brought another version of Benfica, much more aggressive in defensive terms and with other types of solutions in attack that allowed the distance to drop to just three goals with just a few minutes of play before Ricardo Costa called a technical timeout ( 19-16). That save was good for the Leonese team, who hit again on the offensive side, always with Martim Costa as the main reference between the reds to Alexis Borges (direct disqualification) and Grigoras (third exclusion). Even so, and despite having returned the advantage to six goals, the reds still tried a second wave of recovery in the result, returning to the three behind ten minutes from the end (26-23) with the departure of Martim Costa due to physical exhaustion but with brother Francisco to solve in the last minutes for the win by 33-30.
Source: Observadora
