“If we win against City, people will think the new Sir Alex Ferguson has arrived – and that will be difficult to live up to!“ said Ruben Amorim ahead of tonight‘s game with the English champion. Soon to be Manchester United‘s coach was facing Pep Guardiola in the Champions League tonight, and that‘s the duel the football fans will see in the future a lot more, if the Spaniard stays in Manchester City off course. Different competition, different team, but Amorim won and it was an impressive victory: Sporting – Manchester City 4-1! Sporting players knew that their coach was leaving at the end of the week but their desire and focus never changed and they gave their best. It worked, and the victory is more impressive after the fact that the English champion was leading 1-0 after only four minutes. What followed was an impressive turnaround in the space of 11 minutes, after which the home team was leading 3-1 after 49 minutes.One of the best strikers in the world had a chance to change the game when a penalty was awarded, but Erling Haaland hit the crossbar in the 69th minute and that was it. On the oposite side was the new star forward Viktor Gyökeres. The Swedish forward did what the Norwegian couldn‘t – he scored a goal. Three goals in fact, two of which came from penalties, which he didn‘t miss. The fact remains that Manchester City is crippled with injuries like never before. It‘s also a fact that in recent years, they kept a relatively small team full of players who can play in multiply positions, but considering that they play in five competitions this season, that strategy is now working against them. John Stones, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Oscar Bobb, Kyle Walker, Nathan Ake and Jack Grealish were all unavailable so youngster like Jahmai Simpson-Pusey made his first start for Manchester City. Sporting was just too strong tonight and gave the Citizens their third straight defeat in all competition. Ouch. Things started going downhill for Pep Guardiola’s team at the beginning of the second half. From the very first minute, Pedro Gonçalves slipped the ball through to Uruguayan forward Maximiliano Araújo, who broke past Ederson. It was the beginning of a blitz. Two goals in four minutes and another resurgence for Viktor Gyökeres. Trincão was fouled in the penalty area, and the Swedish goal machine coolly converted the penalty, scoring once more from the spot in the closing moments! He became only the third player to score a hat-trick against Manchester City in the Champions League, following Lionel Messi and Christopher Nkunku. And he was the first from Sporting to do so since 1982, when António Oliveira accomplished the feat in the Lisbon club’s lineup among Europe’s elite. Manchester City was defeated, and a new rivalry in England may have begun on this very night. Rúben Amorim threw down the gauntlet to Pep Guardiola even before he set foot in the halls of Old Trafford.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – ROUND 4TuesdayPSV – Girona 4-0 (2-0)/Flamingo 16, Tillman 33, Bakayoko 83, Krejci 88 og/Slovan B. – Dinamo Zagreb 1-4 (1-2)/Strelec 5 – Spikic 10, Sucic 30, Kulenovic 54,72/Bologna – Monaco 0-1 (0-0)/Keher 86/Celtic – RB Leipzig 3-1 (2-1)/Kuhn 35, 45+1, Hatate 72 – Baumgartner 23/Dortmund – Sturm 1-0 (0-0)/Malen 85/Lille – Juventus 1-1 (1-0)/Davic 27 – Vlahovic 60 pen/Liverpool – Leverkusen 4-0 (0-0)/Diaz 61,63, 81, Gakpo 63/Real Madrid – Milan 1-3 (1-2)/Vinicius Jr 23 pen – Thiaw 12, Morata 39, Reijnders 73/Sporting – Manchester City 3-1 (1-1)/Gyokeres 38, 49 pen, Araujo 46 – Foden 4/Wednesday20:45: (3.50) Club Brugge (3.45) Aston Villa (2.10)20:45: (2.05) Shakhtar (3.45) Young Boys (3.60)23:00: (1.35) Bayern (5.80) Benfica (9.00)23:00: (18.0) Crvena Zvezda (7.20) Barcelona (1.20)23:00: (1.60) Feyenoord (4.00) Salzburg (5.70)23:00: (2.65) Inter (3.35) Arsenal (2.85)23:00: (1.73) PSG (3.75) Atl.Madrid (4.80)23:00: (2.45) Sparta Praha (3.35) Brest (2.90)23:00: (2.45) Stuttgart (3.75) Atalanta (2.85)***odds are subject to change***
