Ajax’s big victory over Sporting Portugal has arrived hard in Portugal. A day after the 1-5 in the group stage of the Champions League, the Portuguese newspapers write about a ‘humiliation’ and ‘beating’ by the team from Amsterdam. “It was a dream evening for Sébastien Haller, a nightmare for Sporting,” it sounds.
Sporting was already 0-2 behind within ten minutes due to a double hit by Haller. “Horror in Alvalade”, headlines A Bola on the frontpage. The Portuguese sports side writes about a humiliation by Ajax. “What a humiliation of the Portuguese champion. In Estádio José Alvalade, the nightmare for the home side started early, while a dream night unfolded for Haller.”
“Run over,” headlines Record. “Ajax did what it wanted in Lisbon.” publico saw that things quickly went wrong for the champion of Portugal. “68 seconds. That’s how long Sporting managed to hold on to when they returned to the Champions League. It was a nightmare of epic proportions for Os Leões. It is immediately one of the biggest disasters in Sporting’s history at home. Only Bayern Munich once won 0-5 in 2009. Those numbers leave no doubt about it: Ruben Amorim’s team was not prepared for this and the question is whether the players will recover from this trauma.”
oh jogo writes about a ‘whacking’. “Sporting is having a nightmare coming back to the Champions League. Haller was the star with four goals, setting negative records for the club, which is back in the Champions League for the first time since 2017/18.” Record saw that the left flank of Sporting in particular could not get a grip on Ajax. “The reaction started, but turned out to be too brittle against Ajax’s attacking power. The left side of the defense in particular had continuous problems.”
Sporting is last in Group C due to the large defeat. A new duel in the Champions League awaits in two weeks. The Amorim team will then visit Borussia Dortmund, which was 1-2 too strong for Besiktas on Wednesday evening. Ajax will then take on Besiktas in front of its own audience.