Jorge Jesus sits down with the press ahead of Sunday's hosting of Sp. Braga

There would be no better present for the Alvalade faithful than a win against Sp. Braga this Sunday, on Liga NOS matchday 14. However, Jorge Jesus has warned of the danger posed by the weekend's visitors from the north.

"We try to play the best football we can every week. Braga are top team though, with a long tradition. We will be facing a competent team who believe they can win points in Alvalade, so it will be a tight game", opened Jorge Jesus, before dismissing any negative impact of Braga's recent change of command: "They will be basically the same side. A new coach won't change much in a day or two. The general spirit of things were set by Peseiro, the new coach will make the spare of the moment decisions. I am expecting a strong Braga, who are just one point behind us right now."

To finish, Jesus bushed off comparisons to last season's campaign, reaffirming his side's title aspirations: "What has changed? Some played have come in and some have left and our opponents are better than they were last years. The season goes through spells and that doesn't mean it will stay like it is now. We are a much more consistent team today and our opponents recognise what we are capable of. We are competing in a league where anything can change from one second to the next. Right now we have less points than at the same period last season, but things can change."

Alvalade forward looking to take home the trophy after finishing second last time

Joel Campbell is also in the running for silverware, having been shortlisted for goal of the year after his strike against the United States.

Jorge Jesus happy with his side's Portuguese Cup showing

"We are in every competition to win, there is no other way for us", affirmed Jorge Jesus after his side's Portuguese Cup win against Vitória de Setúbal (1-0) on Wednesday night.

The Alvalade boss was in his usual analytical mood at the final whistle, noting: "I thought it was going to be a hard game. Vitória play really well at home and they are well set up. The penalty could have made things easier for us, but we did better in the second-half. We had less time to recover for this game than our opponent did and the lads were tired after Benfica, but Byran coming on balanced it out and we started moving the ball around more. Joel looked better down the left as well. It was a good game with a nice goal."

Although squad rotation was largely expected, Jesus made just a single change for the encounter, bringing on Campbell for Bryan Ruiz). "I picked the right squad for this match. I did hesitate to rest William and Adrien, but I knew that Adrien could battle through. I didn't thing mixing things up was the right thing to do tonight", finished the Sporting coach.

Strike form Bas Dost secures passage into Portuguese Cup quarter-finals

Sporting CP claimed a place in the Portuguese Cup quarter-finals this Wednesday, courtesy of a 1-0 win in Setúbal secured with a goal from Bas Dost.

The team from Alvalade made the better start to the game of the two sides, holding down spells of possession against a Vitória de Setúbal side that began to venture forward as time ticked over. Some at times brave attacking saw chances on Patrício's goal begin to materialise, like on 14 minutes when Edinho came close to beating the Sporting CP keeper after a scrappy pass by Rúben Semedo.

Sporting CP responded and six minutes later Adrien could have put his side ahead, but the Alvalade skipper was unable to find the back of the net from the penalty spot, being denied by a fine save from Trigueira.

With the cold setting in, chances started to thin out for both sides. Jorge Jesus' side continued to control proceedings, while Setúbal preferred to sit back and wait for the occasional chance to hit on the break.

The deadlock was finally broken with quarter of an hour left on the clock, when a diving header from Bas Dost connected with a cross from Marvin Zeegelaar. The goal was enough to secure the result and the respective place in the Portuguese Cup quarter-finals.

Liga NOS matchday 15 tickets on sale on Thursday

Tickets for Liga NOS matchday 15, between Clube Futebol Os Belenenses and Sporting Clube de Portugal, will go on sale on Thursday the 15th of December, at the Estádio José Alvalade ticket offices as follows:

15TH AND 16TH OF DECEMBER | Gamebox holders 2016/2017

17TH OF DECEMBER | Club Members

18TH TO THE 21ST OF DECEMBER | General public

The first two phases, for Gamebox holders and Club Members respectively, require the presentation of a valid Gamebox or Member card (with November 2016 fees paid). Each card is valid for 1 ticket and each person may bring a maximum of four cards.

Kick-off is scheduled for 21h00 on Thrusday the 22nd of December, in Estádio do Restelo. The tickets available are for the North Goal End and are priced at 13€.

Statement from Sporting Clube de Portugal's Clinical Director

Today (Tuesday), an antidoping team left the Sporting Clube de Portugal Academy at 22h30. In 10 years as a doctor with professional teams in the first division, I have never seen such a thing happen: antidoping tests for the whole in the middle of the night, a day before a match.

In the last seven days, the club has been the subject of control four times. 7th of December (UEFA), 8th, 11th and 13th (ADOP) of December. The following players were submitted to urine and blood tests:

- Twice: Adrien, Gelson, Coates, João Pereira, Zeegelaar, Schelotto, Douglas, André, Paulo Oliveira and Meli;

- Once: Rui Patrício, Beto, Jug, Esgaio, Semedo, Jefferson, Petrovic, William, Bruno César, Alan Ruiz, Bryan Ruiz, Bruno Paulista, Elias, Matheus and Bas Dost.

We have nothing to hide and Sporting Clube de Portugal supports all measures taken in contribution to true sportsmanship and the eradication of illicit acts which damage the health professional athletes. The lack of common sense and respect for the squad shown by the undertaking of antidoping control during the night before a match is saddening. The procedure not only disturbed our afternoon training session, but also in the recovery and rest of players who have three matches in one week in addition to an eight hour plane trip. Perhaps these four controls (in seven days) could have been undertaken after the match or on the following day.

Frederico Varandas

(SCP Clinical Director)

Jorge Jesus looking forward to this week's Portuguese Cup action

Jorge Jesus sat down with the press this Tuesday evening, looking ahead to the midweek Portuguese Cup encounter against Vitória de Setúbal.

"It is good that we have this game. We are coming out of an important match, that we didn't win. We have been playing well in this competition and it is important for us to go on a good cup run", said the Alvalade boss, going on to speak about the opposition in more detail: "Vitória de Setúbal are a good side in this competition and they have won it twice. We want to get through this round and give our fans something to smile about."

France Football awards Cristiano Ronaldo a 4th Ballon d'Or

The Alvalade shotstopper Rui Patrício was named as the world's 12th best player this week by France Football.

The Portuguese international, who was also named as the Euro 2016 Goalkeeper of the Tournament, tallied a total of 6 points and finished ahead of the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Arturo Vidal, Paul Pogba, Robert Lewandowski, Dimitri Payet, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the overall winner of the prestigious Ballon d'Or, with the Alvalade prodigy winning the award for a 4th time.

João Pereira brushes off Sunday's Lisbon derby defeat

João Pereira took a moment to speak with the press at the final whistle on Sunday, affirming that the loss will do little to shake Sporting CP's title chase.

"I thought we had a great second-half. Nothing is going to shake us, we are in the fight. Even when we were losing 2-0, we did everything we could to turn the result around. The boss looked at Benfica's weaknesses and told us how we could get at them, but unfortunately we didn't get the result", said the Portuguese international.

Jorge Jesus unhappy with the evening's refereeing

The Lisbon derby's refereeing was the obvious choice for the first round of questions in Jorge Jesus' post-match press conference on Sunday and the Alvalade boss didn't pull his punches.

“We were penalised. There were two crucial incidents that Jorge Sousa didn't see. Pizzi involuntarily controlled the ball with his hand inside the area, which led to the counter attack that Salvio scored from. Then it was another bad decision from the referee in the incident with Nélson (Semedo). We are being constantly penalised and it takes points off us. The refereeing team was not up to the standard of the big teams. We were penalised and we lost, despite being the best team. The first incident didn't give Benfica a goal, but if the play had been stopped like it should have then the attack would never have happened", said Jorge Jesus.

The Alvalade boss was also asked about his decision to bring off Bas Dost in the second-half, to which he responded: ""Dost isn't the fastest player and he was tired. We needed pace and a player who could push the intensity a bit. That was the idea behind bringing on André."

Jesus went on to analyse the evening's encounter in greater depth, considering his side the most dominant after the break: "For me, it was a good match between two great teams. Sporting CP did a lot better in the second-half and Ederson was the best player on the pitch. Rui (Patrício) didn't have a lot to do in the first-half and straight after Benfica's second goal Bas Dost hit he post. Without taking away from how Benfica played, we were beaten by refereeing decisions."