Sporting CP are in a rebuilding phase and were undone by individual mistakes in Amadora. Guimaraes showed their ineffectiveness up front against Arouca, the Lions to win this one with a clean sheet.
HTH
Sporting CP have a 113-27 record against Vitoria de Guimaraes alongside 37 draws.
Sporting Suffer Early Setback
Sporting finished second behind Porto last season, unable to make it three straight Liga Portugal titles. They were favourites in the Portuguese Cup final, losing to Torreense in extra time.
Rui Borges’ side won all seven preseason matches, defeating Celtic 4-1, Strasbourg 7-0, Monaco 2-0 and Nottingham Forest 4-1.
The Lions took a 2-0 lead at Estrela da Amadora in their season opener, Rodrigo Zalazar scoring before assisting Fotis Ioannidis. They capitulated and were fortunate to escape with a 2-2 draw.
Borges lamented the way his side let the 2-0 lead evaporate: “We should have avoided the two mistakes we made, errors we couldn't afford to make. We had 70 very good minutes and 20-25 less good ones.”
“We broke down, and it ended up happening when we had made almost all our substitutions, because we felt the team were breaking down at times. If we bring on fresh players, it’s for them to help and maintain intensity, and we didn't have that.”
No Goals For Guimaraes
Guimaraes went through two managers last season, Luís Pinto sacked in March and replaced by Gil Lameiras. Lameiras went back to the B team with Tiago Margarido taking charge in the summer.
The new manager saw his side go unbeaten in seven preseason games, including a 3-1 victory over Al Ahli and a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest.
Vitoria couldn’t take that form into their opening Liga clash, a disappointing 1-0 home defeat to Arouca. They had 24-4 shots including 2.28-0.42 xG, constantly failing to take their chances.
Margarido highlighted the issues in front of goal: “The truth is that our finishing wasn't accurate today and we couldn't convert them. We had 24 shots on goal, we had almost 60% possession.”
“In terms of the performance plan, I think we created enough to leave here with a different result, a result that seems extremely unfair given what happened in the game.”
Predicted Lineups & Team News
Sporting CP (4-2-3-1) Rui Silva; Georgios Vagiannidis, Eduardo Quaresma, Gonçalo Inácio, Maxi Araújo; Sergi Altimira, Issa Doumbia; Geny Catamo, Fotis Ioannidis, Rodrigo Zalazar; Luis Suárez
Maxi Araújo is available after suspension and will start at left-back. It remains to be seen if Borges will make many changes, Luis Suárez hoping to get back into the starting side.
Ousmane Diomande was sold to Nottingham Forest with Daniel Bragança and Pedro Gonçalves rumoured to be next out the door.
Borges commented on the possibility of Bragança and Gonçalves staying at the club: "It's possible, if we reach the end of the transfer window and they're still here, they're club players and we'll gladly count on Pote and Dani. They are two great players who have given and will continue to give, if necessary, a lot to Sporting."
Nuno Santos and João Simões are out but Ibrahima Ba and Zeno Debast have returned to training.
Nestory Irankunda has been signed from Watford and could be included in the squad.
Vitoria de Guimaraes (4-2-3-1) Oliwier Zych; Miguel Maga, Thiago Balieiro, Óscar Rivas, João Mendes; Beni Mukendi, Gonçalo Nogueira; Telmo Arcanjo, Samu Silva, Oumar Camara; Gustavo Silva
It remains to be seen how long Margarido will persist with the ineffective Alioune Ndoye up front.
Gustavo Silva is doubtful here but may recover in time which could see Telmo Arcanjo to come into the starting side. Margarido commented on the Brazilian attacker on Thursday: "If the game were today, I wouldn't play. We'll see."
Yeimar Mosquera and Patrick Ouotro have been awaiting documents to complete their registrations but Ahmed Sidibe has been registered.