Sporting’s last pre-season test, about a week before the first day of the Primeira Liga in Pedreira and against Sp. Braga, he had as opponent a Wolverhampton that brought many familiar faces and a Premier League rival who wanted to prove what Rúben Amorim’s team wants to do this season.
After the defeat in Alvalade against Sevilla, in a Cinco Violines Trophy that was only decided on penalties after the draw in regulation time, The lions crossed paths with the English team in the Algarve at a time when they are still closing files and facing unexpected problems. Among the possibility that Bruno Tabata will go to Abel Ferreira’s Palmeiras, in a step expected from the Brazilian striker after losing spaces to Trincão and Rochinha, Sporting could not count on Manuel Ugarte, who is recovering from low back pain, nor with Adán, who suffered a knee injury and must miss the opening rounds of the Championship.
Pote, the artist who goes down for his team to go up (Sporting-Sevilla Chronicle)
Thus, after a week in which Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow continued to hover over Alvalade, Rúben Amorim launched Franco Israel in goal and Morita in midfield, two reinforcements that left both absent due to injury. Inácio, Coates and Matheus Reis formed the central trio, Porro and Nuno Santos were the wings, Matheus accompanied the Japanese and Trincão and Pote supported Paulinho.
On the other hand, Bruno Lage was also missing Raúl Jiménez, Chiquinho, Nélson Semedo and even Adama Traoré, all injured, in what was the reunion of João Moutinho and Daniel Podence, both starters, with the club where he trained and where they took their first steps as professional players. In the Wolves eleven were José Sá, Rúben Neves and Pedro Neto, with Toti Gomes as a substitute.
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– Sporting Club of Portugal (@Sporting_CP) July 30, 2022
The first half brought many difficulties for Sporting, with Wolverhampton imposing a clear superiority essentially in the first half of the 45 minutes. Dendoncker had the most dangerous first play, with a shot that forced a tight stop by Franco Israel (12′), and the English ended up getting ahead after a quarter of an hour. Gonçalo Inácio fouled Pedro Neto inside the penalty area and, when converting the penalty, Rúben Neves did not miss (15′). The Portuguese striker came close to scoring shortly after, in a play in which he left Porro behind and earned the lions Morita’s defensive work (24′), and Wolves relied on Podence’s good performance, a dynamic offense that started right on the midfield line.
Sporting tried to start reacting from half an hour on, moving up lines and finding some space in depth, but the fact that the English presented themselves with very high sectors left a very short midfield for the lions to explore. Trincao was missing something, with no chances to unbalance, and Paulinho was not fed enough or consistent enough to create chances. At the stroke of halftime, however, the Leonese team managed to equalize also with a penalty: Collins fouled Paulinho and, in the conversion, Pote did not fail (44′). At the end of the first half, and far from consistently performing, Sporting were level with Wolverhampton.
In the Algarve both teams train penalties ????#sportingcp #sports #scp #wolverhampton #Wolves #RubénNeves #Bowl pic.twitter.com/KfewsmRkf0
— SPORT TV (@SPORTTVPortugal) July 30, 2022
The second half started unchanged and somewhat contentious, with the referee of the match showing five yellow cards in the opening minutes. The match was more balanced in the second half, with Sporting denying Wolves the superiority that the English had, especially in the first 20 minutes. but Rúben Amorim’s team continued to have some difficulties at the time of the last pass. Trincao was frankly discouraged, being almost always defeated by Aït-Nouri in duels, and Podence was still the great offensive highlight of Bruno Lage’s team.
At that moment Pote had a good opportunity to score, with a shot that José Sá (56′) saved, and Podence isolated Pedro Neto from the left shortly after, but the Portuguese international put a pass into the hands of Franco Israel (56 ′). ′) — the game, however, remained tied. Lage was the first to move, swapping Neto for Hwang, and Amorim countered with Marcus Edwards, who replaced Paulinho and led Sporting to a 3v4x3 with greater mobility in the front. Trincao still had a great chance to score, with a shot that narrowly missed Sá’s goal (73′), Matheus Reis prevented Hwang’s goal on the line (84′) but neither managed to break the tie. .
Sporting closes the preseason with a balance of six wins (Sporting B, Vilafranquense, Estoril, Belenenses SAD, Roma and Portimonense), four draws (Casa Pia, Saint-Gilloise, Villarreal and Wolverhampton) and one defeat (Sevilla), although not they lost no matches in regulation time, as the loss to the Spanish came only on penalties. Pote, who was the top scorer for the lions in preseason with six goals, was once again Leo’s best element on the field. and it continues to accelerate toward a season where you’ll want to distance yourself from last year’s blackout and move closer to the blowout of title year.
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The Lions draw 1-1 against @Wolves.
⚽ @Pedro70Pereira #SCPWWFC #Sport day pic.twitter.com/W0eS8TyQvi– Sporting Club of Portugal (@Sporting_CP) July 30, 2022
Source: Observadora
