Can't believe this is the same Piccini as the start of the season, if his crossing were a bit better (and often getting them in sooner) he'd be one of the most improved players of the season.
Mathieu again, not letting the cross through. Piccini blocked a good chance earlier too. Back 4 has been solid today
He’s become one of my favourites on the team after having a distaster of a preseason and start to the season. He’s fitting in and clearly getting more comfortable in his role here getting more involved in the offence. He’s not giving the ball away like candy like he was before and seems to be building some nice chemistry with Gelson and puts in work on the flank. We don’t get our first goal if he doesn’t win that corner
Gelson! Buries one off the turnaround. Perfect ground cross to the penalty spot from Coentrão to Gelson who makes not mistake placing the ball in the bottom left corner after losing the defence. 0-2
Oof. Pedrinho with a hell of a strike from outside of the box. Patrício did well but I’m not sure he had that covered entirely
Coentrão with another beautiful ball to spring Bruno Cesar, decent cross into Dost but was cleared. Maybe should’ve been higher. Corner though.
Paços scores one off a corner. Patrício makes a world class save but the rebound is not cleared and it finds its way into the net. 2nd goal proves to be huge. 1-2 3 min extra time André Pinto in for Fernandes
Good result, but performance could have been better. Now we just need to keep this lineup fit so we can build on it and get a good run going.
Absolutely, we knew going into this season that if everyone was fit, we’d have a serious shot. It’s just a little un nerving when your counting on guys like Coentrão and Mathieu to be healthy. I do believe we’ve passed the worst, this recent stretch of injuries was unexcpected but I’d still like to shore up some insurance guys in January. Jonathan has been a bust, Pinto has looked decent, though I dunno about over a long stretch
The Europa league is going to be frustrating purely just because the games will be on Thursdays now, leaves a bit less recovery time coming into league games. With the league being there for the taking it's almost a shame that we have multiple focuses, but at the same time short of perhaps Atletico Madrid there's not many teams that we can't take if we play like we have in the CL group stages
Reading the post game comments it seems that we had some difficulties in this match with Pacos playing well. Now we wait to see what happens next week. Ideally a draw in the Classico.
P. Ferreira is undoubtedly one of the best non-3 big clubs in the league and it showed today. A reflection of their coach, Petit, bulldog fighters to the end. A game that as mentioned abov as a critical 3 points reached in a difficult period of the league play. Gelson is gelling , making room for himself not just in Sporting but also in the NT. The negative tint of today's match continues to be the late goal suffered. Lack of concentration when the final whistle nears is something JJ needs to address soon .