Lets hope the end of this thread is a bit better than the last one.... The draw for the 2020-21 league campaign takes place today. Results to follow. Edit: here is the calendar. Fixtures to note are a derby right in the 4th round vs. Porto, and the 2nd last round a derby vs. Benfica
Gil Vicente has another 11 cases of covid and have been ordered to quarantine. It's very likely our first league match against them will not take place next Saturday.
Yea right. Liga will make us play. We're not benfica. We don't have the Prime Minister on our payroll.
I mean, not sure how we can play against a team that's quarantined... although from the looks of it we're getting hammered with infections too.
Apparently there are now at least 7 players and 1 staff member with covid-19, the club hasn't released any names but from what the media says, Luís Maximiano, Renan Ribeiro, Rodrigo Fernandes, Nuno Santos, Pote, Borja & Gonçalo Inácio are infected (asymptomatic).
Ruben Amorim also tested positive for covid-19, as well as another player, and now even the chief doctor has covid.
How is this game not postponed yet? Complete bull s*** if it's not. We'll be missing 8 players, plus our coach. Gil Vicente will be without some of their starters as well. Absurd
Covid gonna be treated like an injury, otherwise there won't be any football. Calendar is already gonna be super tight this year. At least we'll have immunity after this
So if your whole team gets Covid, the whole team is considered injured? Pretty stupid if you ask me. I don't think we'll play a full season without a few stoppages in between. If it gets out of hand, the liga will be at a halt.
Well no i don't think they expect entire teams to get infected. Generally its been 2 or 3 max and they get sent home for 2 weeks. In this case though its likely it will get postponed. In this unique case both teams have many cases, gil Vicente has like 16 cases and they can't even train. The squad has been isolated in Algarve to prevent further spread. The more concerning part is actually europa league, they won't cancel or postpone qualifiers and if we can't show up we'd forfeit. Edit: the sporting vs. Gil vicente match on Saturday has officially been postponed
Looks like Palhinha has covid-19 as well as another staff member. This is particularly worrying because the players that were supposedly healthy were isolated in Algarve to try and contain this thing. But Palhinha has been at Algarve and is now positive.
The postponed Sporting CP x Gil Vicente match has been rescheduled to during the week of October 12-16. Details TBA.
Finally time for our debut in the Liga. Not expecting a brilliant performance, but the good news is Nuno Santos (who had covid) recovered and was called up. Also Edu Quaresma is negative but not called up in time. Paços will be tough away but hopefully we get the 3 points, also considering that Braga started with 2 losses in the league so far.
Starting XI: Adán; Coates, Neto, Feddal; Porro, Wendel, Matheus Nunes, Nuno Mendes; Jovane, Vietto, Tiago Tomás Same starting lineup as on Thursday, again Sporar on the bench, which just screams to me even more that we desperately need a striker.
Golo!! Penalty scored by Jovane. We've looked lively, especially the full backs Nuno Mendes and Porro seem to actually know how to cross. Just need a striker to finish these chances.
Shoot. Jovane pulled something and had to be subbed off. Nuno Santos (just recovered from covid) subs him.
That or Amorim has more trust in Tiago Tomás, but we do need a legit striker. I don't get why we're signing Tabata. Maybe we're preparing for Jovane's exit?
Dirty nutmeg from Tiago Tomás keeps the play alive. Coates makes it 2-0, assisted from Feddal (i think he was trying to head it in lol.) Great pressure from us.
Bragança comes on and you can already see his technical ability. Also liked what Nuno Santos brought so far.
I really like Nuno Santos. Personally, i think he's too good to be on the bench. I know it's difficult to insert him with our formation, but he needs to be in somehow.
Oooo lovely from Bragança, quality to chip it over the opponent and then spring a first time ball in the space for Nuno Santos.
FT: Paços Ferreira 0-2 Sporting CP 3 points in the bag in a game where we started well first 15-20 minutes. Fell off a little afterward and in the 2nd half picked it up again and scored a nice 2nd goal. Coates man of the match, but to me the full backs were really good, if we knew the kid Nuno was good already, Porro is showing a lot of quality on the right. They can both provide quality crosses and the team is screaming for a quality striker. Wendel and Matheus very physical, although I think with Palhinha alongside Wendel we will have a more secure midfield. Vietto continues to be inconsistent with his passing and looks to be a fish out of water in this system. Tiago Tomas missed 2 huge chances that a quality striker should always finish. With Sporar on the bench we should be looking for a solution. Looking forward to seeing Pote recover and starting in this team.