Sporting miss out to Benfica after missing a wealth of chances
Sporting CP fell to a first Liga NOS home defeat of this season this weekend, missing out 1-0 to Benfica. Once again the evening's encounter proved to be the confirmation of Jorge Jesus' side's difficulty in breaking down teams who are happy to sit back and break up play with constant interruptions.
The opening exchanges were scrappy, particularly in the middle, with neither side willing to stray too far forward and both defensive lines standing firm. In fact, it was a slice of bad luck that sentenced the finally result, when a blocked shot from Samaris somehow landed at the feet of Mitroglou to give the Greek a one-on-one chance against Rui Patrício that the Sporting shotstopper could do little to stop.
While Benfica had seemed content to play on the counter-attack, the visitors' intentions to sit deep and sap away time became all the more clearer after the goal. Denied space down the middle, Sporting resorted to use of the flanks and began piling crosses into the box, but to little success. The only chance that looked likely to find th back of the net was a blistering effort from Jefferson from outside of the box, only stopped by Éderson's crossbar.
Sporting looked a totally different side after the break, pushing higher up the pitch and pegging Benfica back into their defensive third. On 61 minutes Bryan Ruiz failed to finish a great move down the right and Slimani was only able to force one of many corners form the rebound. A few minutes later, Ruiz managed to turn what looked to be a certain tap in from a couple of yards over the cross bar.
Benfica made the most of Sporting's failure to equalise with some frustrating play, using virtually every individual duel between players as a chance to go down and waste a couple of minutes. Bryan Ruiz came close in the dying stages with an audacious chip and João Mário fired a shot side from range.
The result leaves Sporting in second place, two points behind Benfica.
