FC Porto 3 (Falcao, Falcao, Henrique) - 2 Sporting CP (Santos, Fernandez): Portuguese Liga Sagres
Portuguese Liga ZON Sagres leaders, FC Porto, wrote a perfect script for themselves as Andre Villas Boas side edged out Sporting CP in 3-2 thriller. The match was played at Estadio do Dragao on Sunday, April 17. This win enabled Porto to stretch their lead
at the top as they are already certain to win this year’s League and book their berth yet again in 2011/12 UEFA Champions League.
The Dragons went in with a 4-3-3 formation. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Silvestre-Varela-c33505, Radamel Falcao and Hulk started upfront with Helton guarding the net for Porto.
Sporting CP fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation. Helder Postiga played as a lone striker while Matias Fernandez played behind Postiga. Rui Patricio started in the goal for the Lions.
Title favourites, Porto, got the game off to a decent start, but Sporting soon got control of the ball and started attacking Helton’s net. It all went wrong for the Dragons when midfielder Andre Santos thumped his shot past http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Helton-c16018 to earn Sporting a 1-0
lead.
Porto were put under pressure and soon tried to make a comeback. Maicon, in his attempt to press forward, received the first booking of the game on the 22ndminute mark. Falcao and midfielder http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Freddy-c14144 Gurain kept on piling up the pressure upon the
Lions and soon found themselves on level terms, courtesy Falcao’s goal in the 26th minute.
Porto did not look back since then as Sporting were forced on the back-foot. Brazilian International Anderson Polga and Marco Natanel Torsiglieri had their work cut out as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hulk-c16436 was causing immense problems for the two centre-backs.
Sporting, though, did not let the pressure reflect upon them and pressed forward time and time again. Porto’s defence, however, stood firm and did not let the opposition gain any advantage. The Dragons kept up the pressure and they were rewarded when Falcao
doubled their lead in the 50th minute.
Sporting, to their credit, retained their composure and in spite of trailing by a 2-1 margin, they continued pressing forward in search of an equalizer. With just a few minutes remaining on the clock, the Lions committed bodies forward which resulted in
the third Porto goal on the 85th minute mark. Henrique da Silva Walter scored the goal after coming on as a 78th minute substitute for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Radamel-Falcao-c30276.
Sporting’s hopes faded as they went two goals behind with just four minutes remaining. The Green and Whites, though, did not lose hope and were paid for their efforts after Fernandez cut down the deficit to a single goal in the 87th minute.
However, Porto managed to hang on to their lead and denied Sporting a late comeback. This result means that Porto maintain their lead at the top as they go up to 77 points with just three games remaining. Sporting, on the other hand, stay 4th in
the table with 42 points.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Villarreal-CF-c40899 in their next game, which is a UEFA Europa League encounter, on Thursday, April 28. Sporting CP will host Portimonense SC on Sunday, May 1st, in their next match.
Tags: