Sporting stun City in Champions League
AFP, PARIS
Viktor Gyokeres on Tuesday scored a hat-trick as Ruben Amorim’s Sporting Lisbon stunned Manchester City with a 4-1 win in the UEFA Champions League, while Liverpool trounced Xabi Alonso’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen and AC Milan beat holders Real Madrid in Spain.
Sporting stole the show with their performance in Lisbon, but the Portuguese champions had to come from behind after Phil Foden put City ahead early on.
Amorim was hoping to sign off from the Champions League in style as Sporting coach before he joins Manchester United on Monday next week, and Gyokeres then took center stage.
Photo: AFP
The Swedish striker equalized seven minutes before half-time, holding off Champions League debutant Jahmai Simpson-Pusey as he ran through to finish.
Sporting then went ahead 19 seconds into the second half as Maximiliano Araujo finished off a fine move, and shortly after that Gyokeres converted a penalty following a foul by Josko Gvardiol.
City could have pulled one back, but Erling Haaland hit the bar from the spot. Gyokeres showed Haaland how to do it as he scored his second spot-kick to complete a hat-trick, condemning City to their heaviest losing margin in Europe since a 3-0 loss to Liverpool in April 2018.
Gyokeres has 23 goals in 17 games in all competitions this season and would surely be the next star to leave Sporting for a bigger club elsewhere following Amorim’s departure.
“It was written that it had to be like that I think; there is no other explanation,” Amorim, at Sporting since 2020, said of a famous victory. “I think everyone who has been here in the last four years deserved this. It was a special night.”
Bernardo Silva said that City are in a “dark place” after the shock humiliation, but Pep Guardiola vowed to solve his spluttering side’s problems.
For only the second time in the Guardiola era, City had suffered three consecutive losses in a single season.
It was a painful return to Portugal for Lisbon-born Silva, who conceded City are mired in a damaging slump.
“It’s disappointing because we’re a bit in a dark place right now. Everything looks to be going in the wrong way,” he said. “Even when we are playing well we don’t score our chances and we concede too easily. We need to get better very quickly otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses.”
City’s first defeat in four games in this season’s Champions League should not be fatal to their European ambitions, but Guardiola cannot fail to be alarmed by the way his injury-riddled defense was run ragged.
“We had a fantastic first half, now we are struggling to score. We create and concede when the opponents don’t do much,” Guardiola said. “At 2-1 down, many things can happen. Emotionally we were not stable enough and in this competition you have to be stable.”
City have seven points at the halfway stage in the new-look Champions League, while Sporting are second on 10 points, behind only Liverpool, who are the sole team with the maximum 12 points.
Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick as the Anfield club secured a statement 4-0 win over Leverkusen on the night Alonso returned to Merseyside, with all the goals coming in the second half, while Real Madrid suffered their second loss in four games in the competition this season as they went down 3-1 at home to Milan.
AS Monaco are third in the standings with 10 points following a 1-0 victory at Bologna and Borussia Dortmund are fourth on nine points after Donyell Malen’s 85th-minute goal gave them a 1-0 win at home to Sturm Graz.
Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty allowed Juventus to come from behind and draw 1-1 at Lille OSC, while Celtic have seven points after a 3-1 win against RB Leipzig/
PSV Eindhoven crushed Girona 4-0 and Dinamo Zagreb beat Slovan Bratislava 4-1.
