Dream farewell for Ruben Amorim in Lisbon as Sporting hammer Manchester City
SO LONG: Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim during the UEFA Champions League match against Manchester City. Pic: Zed Jameson/PA Wire.
THE pair will meet again, in a different country and a different competition, but on his big “unveiling” last night, Ruben Amorim scored a huge psychological win over Pep Guardiola.
The Sporting Lisbon manager, bound for Manchester United on Monday, celebrated his last home game in charge of the Portuguese club in unforgettable fashion as a hat-trick from the prolific Victor Gyokeres cancelled out Phil Foden’s Champions League opener.
It was part of a stunning blitz that featured the hosts scoring three times in 11 minutes, either side of half time, but it was the team talk from Amorim at the interval, after City had dominated for so much of the first half, that will have impressed his new Old Trafford paymasters the most.
The opening to the second half saw Lisbon score within 20 seconds of the restart, before City had even kicked a ball, and seconds after that, Gyokeres blasted in a penalty which left the visitors on the brink of a third straight defeat.
Those losses have coincided, of course, with an horrific injury list for Guardiola, which saw him hand a debut to defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey last night, one day after his 19th birthday.
But still, City have coped with similar problems in the past and with Amorim’s first Manchester derby against Guardiola looming on December 15, this was still a statement that will have been heard loud around English football, well beyond the north-west city.
And by the time Gyokeres wrapped up his hat-trick on 80 minutes, scoring from the spot after Matheus Nunes had dragged back Geny Catamo, City had been reduced to a shambles by him.
Amorim will be working with a very different group of players, of course, one whose collective confidence is way below that of Sporting’s but there was a verve and style about their second half display that should give United fans hope.
That Amorim Midas touch even extended last night to playing mind games with Erling Haaland, who struck the crossbar from a 68th minute penalty, awarded after Ousmane Diomande was harshly judged to have handled as he blocked Bernardo Silva. A successful conversion would have brought the tie back to 3-2.
But the game was always going to be about more than events on the field at the Estadio Jose Alvalade although, for 35 minutes at least, it looked like so many other dominant City performances down the year.
They led thanks to an early Foden goal, and should comfortably have had a couple more - Haaland alone coming extremely close on four occasions before the inevitable happened.
Gyokeres, Europe’s hottest striking property and a player already being tipped to follow Amorim to Old Trafford, had already missed a sitter when Sporting pounced on a Rico Lewis mistake.
On that occasion, after seven minutes, his weak effort was blocked by Ederson but the Swedish striker was not going to make the same mistake when offered a second chance on 38 minutes.
Geovany Quenda played a superb, defence-splitting pass which again sent Gyokeres clear, this time racing away from Simpson-Pusey. Having missed the first chance, there was no mistake with a powerful shot this time and, somehow against all the overwhelming evidence and play, Sporting were level.
Foden had shot City ahead after just four minutes, pouncing on a mistake by Hidemasa Morita and advancing before beating unconvincing home keeper Franco Israel with a strong shot that beat him at his near-post.
But how did City not put this game to bed in the half-hour that followed? In quick succession, Haaland had a curling shot well saved, lashed an effort wide, saw Gyokeres clear his header off the line, and struck a magnificent volley that was well stopped by Israel.
Having survived that, Sporting were a very different prospect after the break. it took all of 20 seconds to claim their second goal and less than two minutes for them to race 3-1 in front.
The second came straight from kick-off and City did not even touch the ball before they found themselves trailing. Sporting worked the ball down the left, Pedro Goncalves threaded through a superb pass for Maximiliano Araujo who finished from eight yards, via Ederson’s legs.
The stadium erupted, the sense that this was a special evening for the fans and their departing manager was tangible, and 22 seconds after City kicked off following the second goal, Sporting were on the verge of a third.
It came from a penalty, awarded for a terrible, rash push by Josh Gvardiol on Francisco Trincao and Gyokeres thrashed in an unstoppable penalty - taking his tally for the season to 22 goals in 17 games.
Goal number 23 was not far away as he and Sporting celebrated a night that will live long in the club’s folklore.
Israel 6; Debast 6, Diomande 6, Matheus Reis 7 (St Juste 75, 5); Quenda 7 (Quaresma 85), Hjulmand 7, Morita 6 (Braganca 75, 5), Araujo 7 (Catamo 75, 7); Trincao 8 (Harder 89), Gyokeres 10, Goncalves 8.
Ederson 6; Lewis 5, Simpson-Pusey 5, Akanji 5, Gvardiol 4; Kovacic 6 (De Bruyne 84); Savinho 5 (Gundogan 77, 5), Foden 7, Silva 5 (Doku 77, 5), Nunes 4; Haaland 5.
D Siebert (Germany) 5.
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