FC Porto manager, Sérgio Conceição, returning to his old club Vitória de Guimarães, used Óliver Torres up front in place of the suspended Héctor Herrera but despite an attacking frontline the league leaders found themselves a goal down at the break.
The highly-rated Raphinha, volleyed past FC Porto keeper ,José Sá, midway through the first-half although there was a suspicion of off-side.
This seemed to motivate the Dragons who started the second-half full of confidence and it was no surprise when Vincent Aboubakar volleyed home in the fifty-seventh minute to commence the fightback.
Six minutes later, Yacine Brahimi made it two before the third member of Porto’s rampaging attack, Moussa Marega, added a brace against his former club to put the result beyond doubt.
Guimarães on-loan Sporting man, Heldon completed the 4-2 score-line with a neat solo effort late on. The league leaders maintained their two-point lead at the top of the table. Sporting ran riot against Marítimo with Gelson Martin setting up Bas Dost for the opener in the twenty-first minute.
Shortly after the break, Bryan Ruiz got number two for his first league goal of the season. Bas Dost completed his hat-trick with two goals in quick succession to bring his tally to sixteen for the season.
In the seventy-fourth minute, he guided Bruno Fernandes’ cutback over the line and the ex-Wolfsburg striker was on-hand four minutes later to pounce as Fernandes’ shot rebounded off the crossbar.
Marcos Acuña smashed home number five in stoppage time. Although Benfica could only draw the previous week’s Lisbon derby against Sporting, there can be few doubts that they were the side feeling more encouraged with the match day performance against the Lions.
Rui Vitória’s side have relied heavily on the league’s top scorer, Jonas, to keep the Eagles in touch with the top two. The Brazilian was again in action midway through the first-half against Moreirense but this time as provider as his looping ball to the back-post was slotted home by Pizzi.
Jonas was on hand to score the killer goal fifteen minutes from time following good work by João Carvalho before leaving André Micael for dead inside the box and finishing coolly to wrap up a 2-0 victory. Portimonense picked up a valuable point in the 1-1 draw away at Paços de Ferreira.
Luiz Phellype gave the home side the lead ten minutes after the break but Portimonense’s Japanese U23 striker, Shoya, on-loan from FC Tokyo, levelled matters twenty minutes later. This was Portimonense’s first league goal in nearly seven-and-a-half hour’s football dating back to late November.
FC Porto, Sporting undefeated at halfway stage
By Chris Wright, in Sport · 11 Jan 2018, 14:42 · 0 Comments