A difficult away win against Besiktas excited the whole of Lisbon.
After returning to Portugal, Sporting Lisbon will head to the away game to challenge Morelense without stopping.
This newly promoted team has performed very well this season and relegation is not a problem.
Boloni rotated the team's lineup. In the first eleven minutes, Sporting Lisbon took the lead in scoring. Rui Bento opened the scoring for Sporting Lisbon.
But in the 30th minute, Tonito was sent off with a direct red card for a malicious foul due to anger.
Sporting Lisbon, who was playing with one less player, was in trouble, but Morellense launched an attack at the beginning of the second half and equalized the score in the 51st minute.
In the 65th minute, Boloni finally made a substitution, replacing Nikolai with Su Dong who performed mediocrely throughout the game.
No one remembers how many times this has happened.
After coming on as a substitute, Sudong was very active, and in the 73rd minute, he received a pass from João Pinto and scored Morelense's goal, giving Sporting Lisbon another lead.
Subsequently, this score was maintained until the end of the game.
Sporting Lisbon narrowly defeated Morelense in an away game 2-1.
…
In the same round, Porto defeated Beiramar 3-0 at home and continued to maintain a four-point lead.
Everyone is also clearly aware that it is really difficult for Sporting Lisbon with a thin lineup to maintain a two-front battle, especially when there is a Portuguese Cup ahead.
Sure enough, in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup in midweek, Sporting Lisbon challenged Navarre away.
Boloni played as half the main force and half as a substitute, but he hid Sudong, who had been fighting continuously, and continued to trust Nikolai.
As a result, in the away game, Sporting Lisbon could not score for a long time, but in the 85th minute, the opponent scored a goal.
In the end, they lost 0-1 in the away game and were unfortunately eliminated from the Portuguese Cup.
After the game, the media was not surprised that Sporting Lisbon was eliminated from the Portuguese Cup by a lower-level league team.
Morning Post believes that with Sporting Lisbon's lineup and forced insistence on three fronts, the final result may be that all three fronts cannot support it. Even in the Portuguese Super League, Porto's performance can be said to be quite stable.
"Mourinho's team is terrifyingly stable, as if they never make mistakes!"
The Morning Post stated that Sporting Lisbon should make decisions on the main battlefield, such as focusing on the UEFA Cup.
But sometimes, things are just so weird.
When more and more people suggested that Sporting Lisbon should consider focusing on the UEFA Cup, in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, the Green Lions actually drew the strongest of the eight teams, Lazio from Serie A.
This suddenly caused the whole of Portugal to be devastated.
News Daily even said that Sporting Lisbon has the worst luck among the three teams in the Portuguese Super League.
In the knockout round, we encountered teams from Greece and Turkey in succession. We traveled back and forth to every away game, traveling thousands of kilometers. After entering the quarterfinals, we were drawn against Lazio, the strongest team.
There is indeed no one else who is so lucky!
On the other hand, Boavista drew Malaga from La Liga. This team is currently ranked 14th in the La Liga standings.
Porto's luck is as good as ever. Although they were drawn against Panathinaikos of Greece, the first leg was at home again.
As we all know, the best schedule for the knockout rounds is guest first, then home, but this is relative.
For a strong team like Porto that wants to fight on multiple fronts, the best result is to directly defeat the opponent in the first round and make the second round lose the suspense.
What's interesting is that except for the second knockout round of Porto's matches this season, all UEFA Cup games are played first as home and then as away.
More importantly, the opponents are not strong.
For them, who are fighting on two fronts, the schedule is really advantageous.
After grabbing enough goal advantages in the first round, they directly defended tightly in the second round.
Of course, Porto's strategy is based on the overall strong strength of the team.
In addition, Mourinho's team has indeed not encountered a strong team along the way.
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In the twenty-fifth round of the Portuguese Super League, Sporting Lisbon faced Boavista at home.
This team, which competed hard with Sporting Lisbon for the league title last season, has completely failed this season.
After selling many of its leading stars, Boavista is currently ranked only in the middle, and its strength has dropped a lot compared to last season.
Sudong opened the scoring for Sporting Lisbon in just five minutes.
In the 20th minute, while defending Ronnie, central defender Tula committed a foul in the penalty area and was sentenced to death by the referee.
Albertini personally took the penalty kick and expanded the score for Sporting Lisbon.
Subsequently, Sporting Lisbon deliberately slowed down the pace.
Especially in the 35th minute, Tula fouled again, received another yellow card, and was sent off with a red card.
Since then, Boavista has been completely defensive, and Sporting Lisbon has not stepped up its attack.
Su Dong played for 60 minutes and was replaced by Nikolai early.
He needs to save his energy to play in the UEFA Cup midweek.
But it seems that no one is optimistic about Sporting Lisbon's first leg away trip.
So far, Sporting Lisbon's European away games have been unsatisfactory, and now that they are facing the powerful Lazio, the prospects are even less optimistic.
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Is Serie A strong?
Strong, and boundlessly strong.
The nickname of the Little World Cup proves that Serie A is universally recognized as the world's number one league.
Here are the largest and strongest superstars in the world gathered here, and the competition is the most fierce in the world.
Is Lazio strong in Serie A?
There is no doubt about this.
From the late 1990s to the turn of the century, after a round of crazy capital investment, Lazio's overall strength has been amazingly improved, creating a very powerful lineup.
Recently, Lazio's finances are no longer tight, but the team is still full of stars.
Former Italian legendary goalkeeper Peruzzi, Jaap Stam, who is known as the world's top central defender, veteran central defender Mihajnovic, Italian international left back Favalli, and Italian international right back Pancaro.
In such a defensive line, Argentina international Solin and Italian right back Odo can only play substitute and rotation roles.
In the midfield, Dino Baggio, Diego Simeone, Gazzi, Stankovic, Fiore...all are famous players in Europe and even world football.
Not to mention the front line, Argentinian star Lopez, Italian forwards Corradi and Simone Inzaghi, and Serie A ace scorer Chiesa, all make Lazio's front line star-studded.
And you know, this is the lineup after Lazio sold captain defender Nesta, Argentine center Crespo and Spanish midfielders Mendieta and De La Pena.
The head coach of this team is also very famous, Robert Mancini.
Lazio experienced turmoil last season. Zoff and Zaccheroni failed to bring stability to the team. This season, under the coaching of Mancini, Lazio is firmly in the top four of Serie A and can basically guarantee qualification for the Champions League.
As the pressure in the league is not very high and the team has already reached the quarterfinals, Lazio may not have the desire to compete for this honor.
All these factors made Sporting Lisbon extremely stressed from the beginning of the draw.
Outside media are also not optimistic about the Green Lions, thinking that this team from the Portuguese Super League is not worth mentioning in front of the powerful Lazio.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica in Rome even made harsh remarks before the game, predicting that Lazio would end the battle completely in the first round.
"Mancini will not want the team to drag the suspense of victory into the second round!"
In fact, Sporting Lisbon is also not optimistic.
…
The team arrived in Rome, Italy one day in advance and checked into the hotel they booked in advance.
But on the eve of the game, Su Dong, Ronnie, Quaresma, Albertini and others gathered in the room, lying on the bed or leaning on the sofa. Pepe even sat directly on the carpet.
There are two emotions written on everyone's face, anxiety and worry.
"Unlike all the teams we have encountered before, Lazio is really strong, and it is really strong. There are strong players on all three lines, and there will be no tricks."
Albertini was born in Serie A and almost joined Lazio before, so he is very familiar with this team.
"I don't believe there is really no chance." Su Dong said.
"There is definitely an opportunity." Albertini nodded, "But to be honest, you have to be able to seize the opportunity."
After a pause, Milan's former vice-captain analyzed: "For example, Jaap Stam is thirty years old and 1.91 meters tall. This Dutch central defender is perfect. He must be tall and technical, and he must be technical.
He has speed and physical strength. He is never afraid of anyone, including Vieri, and he defends head-on. In my impression, very few people can break through him."
"His only flaw is probably the reason why Ferguson gave up on him. He is slow to turn around, and after experiencing a serious injury at Manchester United, his strength and condition have indeed declined a lot, but even so, he is still the world's best.
One of the best central defenders in the world.”
"Then try to hit the back more often..."
Before Su Dong finished speaking, Albertini shook his head and objected.
"You are wrong. Lazio is the team with the most draws in Serie A so far this season. You can imagine that they have even more draws than those mid-to-lower teams, so they have lost the fewest games in Serie A, and their defense is also
The best, second only to Juventus and AC Milan."
When Albertini said this, he breathed out softly, "You have to know that compared with the wealthy Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Lazio this season is in deep financial quagmire, and the team is even
He can no longer pay salaries, but such a team can still be brought to the fourth place in the league. Facing the top three teams in the league, his results in six games are one win and five draws, and the one he won was still in the league.
Juventus’ Stadio Alpi.”
"Faced with such an opponent, given our strength, I can't think of any way other than to fight to the death."
In other words, Albertini believes that Sporting Lisbon's previous advantages against all teams are gone when facing Lazio.
Even veterans Albertini and Andre Cruz felt pessimistic. You can imagine how bad the team's morale was.
