Gyökeres resolves a difficult tie with CD Santa Clara (2-1 ET)
Sporting Clube de Portugal made their way through to the quarter-finals of the Taça de Portugal, beating CD Santa Clara 2-1 after extra time. After a late goal from the opponents forced the additional half hour, Viktor Gyökeres struck to give his side the win.
Up against a team who had beaten them 0-1 a fortnight ago, and who lie in fourth place in the Liga Portugal table, Sporting CP fielded the same starting XI as against Boavista FC this past weekend: Franco Israel in goal, Eduardo Quaresma, Zeno Debast and Matheus Reis in the defence, Geny Catamo and Maxi Araújo on the wings, captain Morten Hjulmand and youngster João Simões in the centre and the offensive trident composed of Francisco Trincão, Geovany Quenda and Viktor Gyökeres. Jeremiah St. Juste was back available and started on the bench, while Gonçalo Inácio was left out and joined the long list of injured players that included Daniel Bragança, Hidemasa Morita, Pedro Gonçalves and Nuno Santos.
Although somewhat erratic with their passing, Sporting CP sought to take the initiative from the opening whistle, whilst CD Santa Claratook a more reactive stance. The first real approach came in the 16th minute, when Quenda didn’t make clean contact with Catamo’s precision pass.
CD Santa Clara rarely managed to venture into the attack, but defensively they made the task difficult for Sporting CP. Later, a shot from Catamo from outside the area was saved by goalkeeper Neneca, and in the 40th minute, following a corner, Hjulmand had the ball in the net with the help of a rebound off the opposition goalkeeper, but VAR called handball against him.
After the interval, Sporting CP continued to try to up the pace to unlock the game, and came very close again on the hour mark. However, just when the ball was left for Trincão to shoot at goal, with Neneca already out of the equation, the winger slipped and a defender from CD Santa Clara had time to clear the shot from close to the goal line.
With the continuous stoppages forced by the Azoreans, impatience and displeasure with the officials grew both on and off the pitch. Substitute Ricardo Esgaio, warming up on the sidelines, ended up not only receiving the first yellow card of the game for protests, but also a second immediately afterwards, leading to his expulsion.
The first changes came in the 72nd minute, and the move could not have worked out better. In addition to St. Juste coming on (for Matheus Reis), Conrad Harder entered the pitch, and it was the Danish striker who immediately broke the deadlock. Around two minutes after his arrival, Harder appeared in the area to deflect a cross into the net and make it 1-0.
From there, a Gyökeres' free kick went just over the bar, Ousmane Diomande and Iván Fresneda were brought on, and the opposition tried sporadically to pull bac level.
After two big scares in the last moments of the game, with Gabriel Silva heading over and a fantastic save from Franco Israel denying an opposition player, CD Santa Clara finally made it 1-1 off a ball deflected in by Pedro Ferreira in the 98th minute. Extra time was forced.
In the first part of extra time nothing changed, and Gyökeres had another strong shot kept out by Neneca.
In the last 15 minutes everything was decided, with some details along the way: 19-year-old winger Mauro Couto made his debut for the first team, replacing a tired Eduardo Quaresma. CD Santa Clara would limit themselves to little more than defending, but made a fatal error with around seven minutes remaining. Frederico Venâncio tried to play the ball back to his goalkeeper and Gyökeres read the move perfectly, intercepted the pass, rounded Neneca and scored the goal to make it 2-1
St. Juste received a red card before the end, but Sporting CP made their way through to the next round of the cup competition.
order after clashing with an opponent. Despite the 'hot' final stretch of the game, the Lions' victory and classification were finally guaranteed.
They now make a trip to Barcelos this Sunday (8:30 p.m.), to face Gil Vicente FC in Liga Portugal.
Sporting CP: Franco Israel [GK], Geny Catamo (Conrad Harder, 72'), Eduardo Quaresma, Zeno Debast (Ousmane Diomande, 83'), Matheus Reis (Jeremiah St. Juste, 72'), Maxi Araújo, Morten Hjulmand [ C], João Simões, Francisco Trincão, Geovany Quenda (Iván Fresneda, 90+5') and Viktor Gyökeres.