Sporting Lisbon will be in action in their next match in the Primeira Liga this Sunday after seeing off Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
With his move to the Manchester United imminent, this season will be Ruben Amorim’s last game for the Leoes, and having been unable to clinch a victory at Estadio Braga Municipal since August 2021.
After the unimpressive displays at the group stages, Braga again fails to register a good result in the Europa League after being held to a 1-1 by the Swedish side Elfsborg when they faced each other at the Boras Arena on Thursday.
After synthesizing with no goals scored in the initial 45 minutes of the match, the tourists were awarded a fair punishment for dominating the game after the break, in the 66th minute Timothy Ouma put the ball into his own net consequently, giving Phokeland a slight advantage before Emil Holten leveled the score six minutes before the final whistle.
After beginning their European campaign with a 2-1 win against 10-man Maccabi Tel Aviv on September 26, Braga have won only once more, drawing with Olympiacos and losing to Bodo/Glimt before Thursday.
Before the midweek draw, Braga had placed three consecutive successive wins, over Farense, and Arouca in the Primeira Liga, as well as a 2-1 win over Vitoria de Guimaraes in the quarter-finals of the Taca da Liga.
The Carlos Carvalhal’s men are 26th in the Europa League standings, but in the national league they have won four of their last five games with the only defeat to Porto in the Estadio do Dragao on October 6th with a score 1-2.
After finishing in fourth place the previous season, Braga has had a strong start to the league season. They have won six of their ten games and drawn two more, giving them 20 points and a two-point lead over third-place Benfica.
The Sporting Lisbon club, who have won 11 of their past 20 matches in all competitions and drawn three since September 2008, will provide Os Arcebispos with their next test.
Ruben Amorim passed the Pep Guardiola test with flying colors as Sporting Lisbon crushed Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday, much to the astonished attention of Manchester United supporters.
At the Estadio Jose Alvalade, Viktor Gyokeres took matters into his own hands after losing to Phil Foden's early opener. He scored a hat-trick to defeat the English champions and solidify his reputation as one of Europe's best shooters.
With three victories and one draw from their first four games, Sporting Lisbon has accumulated 10 points and is now sitting in second place in the rankings, only two points behind Liverpool. They are one of just six teams in the Champions League that have not lost this season.
The triumph on Tuesday was consistent with the strong performance at home, where Sporting Lisbon has won all ten of their Primeira Liga games, scored 35 goals, and kept seven clean sheets this season, making them the only team with a perfect record.
With the exception of a 1-1 draw against Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven on October 1, Amorim's team has won all but one of their 16 games across all competitions since the start of the new season, when they lost to rivals Porto 4-3 in extra time in the Portuguese Super Cup on August 3.
