Sporting thrash Besiktas and Porto earn deserved victory over AC Milan as Portuguese duo give major boost to their Champions League aspirations
Sporting earned a spectacular 1-4 away victory against Besiktas to gain full control in the battle for progression to at least the Europa League knockout stages, while FC Porto earned a crucial win of their own, dispatching of AC Milan 1-0 on home soil.
Both sides had made disappointing starts to their Champions League campaigns heading into Tuesday’s fixtures, with Sporting CP not yet off the mark following a heavy 5-1 defeat to Ajax and a 1-0 loss to Dortmund, while FC Porto’s positive 0-0 draw away to Atletico Madrid was overshadowed by a horrendous 1-5 home loss to Liverpool the following week.
In the third round of Champions League group stage action, though, Sporting and Porto made ammends for their below par starts, earning crucial wins to keep their hopes of remaning in European competition beyond Christmas very much alive.
Sporting opened proceedings on the day, facing Besiktas in the earlier kick-off, and the match did not disappoint, ,with chances aplenty for both sides - and a handful of goals to go with it too.
Sporting, however, were the first to get on the scoresheet, Pedro Goncalves’ corner flicked on by Goncalo Inacio, before captain Sebastian Coates nodded home with a powerful diving header.
Besiktas were not behind for long though, levelling the scoring ffrom a corner of their own as Cyle Larin, with the help of Matheus Reis’ shoulders, rose highest to head in past Adan in the Sporting goal.
Sporting, however, responded with yet another goal from a set piece, Paulinho this time flicking on Sporting’s corner to the near post, before Coates once again completed the simple task of heading the ball into the back of the net from close range to give Sporting a 2-1 lead within the opening half an hour.
And things would only get better for Ruben Amorim’s side, PSG loannee Pablo Sarabia converting from the penalty spot with perfect composure after Besiktas captain Vida was adjudged to have committed an illegal act of handball from yet another Coates header.
It appeared as though Sporting’s two-goal advantage would not remain intact heading into half time though as Teixeira scored a tremendous acrobatic effort for Besiktas to halve the defecit - but VAR indicated that he was just fractionally offside, and the goal was ruled out, much to the relief of the Sporting faithful.
As much as Besiktas pushed in the second half and created some significant opportunities, they were simply unable to get back into the game - and instead it was Sporting who were to score again, Paulinho scoring a sensational first-time curling effort from outside the box in the closing stages to round off a brilliant evening for the Portuguese champions. Their hopes of advancing to the knockout stages in 2nd place firmly remain.
Porto then had the task of following in Sporting’s footsteps, and playing with great purpose to make ammends for their embarassing loss to Liverpool, Porto were always the better team.
Despite having plenty of chances, though, it was only halfway through the second half that they managed to break the deadlock, Sergio Oliveira’s effort almost inexplicably spinning extremely high and backwards. Mehdi Taremi then managed to take the ball down with great control in between his feet, allowing the ball to then run into the path of Luis Diaz, who struck the ball first time from the edge of the box with power and accuracy to give Porto the all-important opening goal - which proved to be the decisive one in this contest that remained tight, but really in scoreline only.
After Liverpool then managed to defeat Atletico Madrid, Porto are now level on points with the La Liga champions, both sitting on 4 points after 3 games. AC Milan are bottom, yet to get off the mark.
