Sporting lays the foundation for a big win over Besiktas in spectacular first half

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 8:40 PM• Dominic Mostert

Sporting Portugal has taken the first points in Group C of the Champions League. The team of trainer Rúben Amorim won on Tuesday evening in a spectacular match against Besiktas 1-4 and is therefore in third place with three points. Ajax and Borussia Dortmund, the two top teams in the group with six points, will compete against each other from 9 p.m.

After a spectacular first half, Sporting rested with a 1-3 lead in the Vodafone Park. The pace was murderous and the chances followed each other in rapid succession. Besiktas started brightly and became dangerous through Rachid Ghezzal, who turned the ball past in the fourth minute. The team of trainer Sergen Yalcin seemed to have Sporting in the loop in the opening phase, but after fifteen minutes the visitors took the lead. A turning corner from Pedro Gonçalves was headed through by Gonçalo Inácio, allowing captain Sebastián Coates to hit the ball from close range.

Halfway through the first half, Goncalves was able to double the margin for Sporting. The attacker received the ball halfway through the half from Besiktas after a nice kick from goalkeeper Antonio Adán, but ran into keeper Ersin Destanoglu. A minute later, Besiktas equalized. A sharp corner from Miralem Pjanic landed at Cyle Larin, who headed in at the far post. The attacker pushed off somewhat via Matheus Reis, but the arbitration led by Slavko Vincic approved the goal.

Besiktas got the lid back on three minutes later. Sporting scored in much the same way as the 0-1: a corner from Pablo Sarabia was extended, this time by Paulinho, and once again Coates was in the right position to finish. He did that again not with the head, but with his extended leg. Michy Batshuayi was close to the equalizer with a hard and low long shot, but hit the post. Sporting then increased the lead from a penalty kick. Coates’ header was saved by Destanoglu, but Domagoj Vida touched the ball before that and led in a penalty. Sarabia took advantage of that opportunity with a controlled shot into the right corner.

In the first minute of stoppage time, Besiktas thought to make it 2-3. After a brilliant long ball from Welinton, Alex Teixeira took the ball out of the air in an acrobatic manner and found the top left corner. However, he was just offside prior to his diagonal bet and so the goal was cancelled. After more than an hour, serious opportunities arose for Larin and Batshuayi, after which Paulinho hit the post from close by on the other side after a tight cross from Gonçalves. Subsequently, Batshuayi could once again blame Besiktas for not returning to the match. After a nice pass from Ghezzal, he passed Adán around with the outside of the foot, but then shot high from a difficult angle.

It was a small miracle that it stayed 1-3 for so long, as the chances continued in the first half hour after the break. Paulinho shot hard on the crossbar on behalf of Sporting, just under twenty minutes before the end, and Porro shot into the rebound against Destanoglu. Time ticked away in Sporting’s favor, which did not run into serious problems in the final phase of the match. In fact, in the last minute of the official playing time, Sporting came in 1-4. The visitors captured the ball in midfield and Paulinho scored beautifully. The striker, who previously hit the post and crossbar, was reached after Besiktas tried to wrest the ball from Gonçalves, he then curled the ball from distance into the left corner and determined the final score. Deep in injury time, Tiago Tomás missed a huge chance at 1-5 from close by.