Sporting Lisbon registered their maiden UEFA Champions League (UCL) victory over English opposition, with a 2-0 success against Tottenham Hotspur at the Estádio José Alvalade also seeing them start a UCL group with two wins for the very first time, Abbeylivenetwork.com reports.
Sporting manufactured the first opportunity of a lively opening half, as Hugo Lloris had to be on his toes to tip Pedro Gonçalves’ strike around the post. Facing Portuguese opposition in Europe’s premier club competition for the first time in 60 years, Spurs responded in kind, and Richarlison’s close-range header into the arms of Antonio Adán brought an animated response from three-time UCL runner-up Antonio Conte on the touchline.
Hoping to haunt his former employers, after only playing 15 minutes of competitive football for Tottenham, Marcus Edwards – dubbed the ‘mini-Messi’ – remained Sporting’s central attacking menace going forward, as Lloris instinctively ended his mesmerising Lionel Messi-esque solo run moments before the interval, shortly after Richarlison had seen a strike ruled out for offside.
In pursuit of their first away European victory in six matches, the visitors restarted similarly to how they began the game, as Adán denied Emerson Royal on two separate occasions in the opening moments of the second half. Sporting then began to weather the attacking storm, but Harry Kane was millimetres away from connecting to Ivan Perišić’s enticing cross just before Antonio Conte introduced Dejan Kulusevski off the bench.
But the vocal power of the Estádio José Alvalade would yet conjure a late twist, and substitute Paulinho glanced Pedro Porro’s inswinging corner past the helpless silhouette of Lloris. Capitalising on Spurs’ shell-shocked state, Sporting stunned Conte’s side again in the third minute of added-on time, when Arthur Gomes scored on his European debut following a spellbinding run through the Tottenham defence.
Man of the Match: Marcus Edwards (Sporting Lisbon)
