Sporting back to winning ways with triumph away to Chaves | OneFootball

GD Chaves 2-3 Sporting

Sporting bounced back from last week’s disappointment versus FC Porto with a 3-2 victory away to Chaves, marking their 13th league victory of the Primeira Liga season.

The Lions took an early lead via Pedro Gonçalves’ 8th-minute penalty before João Teixeira equalised for the hosts moments before the half-time interval.

The visitors swung the pendulum back in their favour, however, with second-half goals from Pedro Gonçalves, once more, and Nuno Santos, prior to Héctor Hernandez’s consolation goal that concluded the score at 3-2.

As the season grinds steadily towards the home straight, all four of the top sides in the Bwin Liga clocked up victories this round of matches, with punters at 1xbet login registration no doubt pondering whether or not Portugal’s finest clubs will finish in the current order.

Rúben Amorim was able to welcome back Hidemasa Morita for the clash versus Chaves, as new signing Héctor Bellerín and full debutant Ousmane Diomande also picked up starts in the green and white.

With just four wins in their last 16 visits to the Estádio Municipal de Chaves, Sporting looked desperate to improve on their ratio with a positive start that earned them a 9th-minute penalty, following a foul on Paulinho inside the box. From the 12-yard-mark, Pedro Gonçalves made no mistake with his conversion, placing the visitors ahead against the club where he spent a portion of his youth.

Only the crossbar denied Paulinho from doubling Sporting’s advantage from a Nuno Santos cross before Juninho, at the other end, scuppered a fantastic opportunity to level proceedings in the 28th minute after aiming his one-on-one effort straight at Antonio Adán.

The Spaniard between the sticks would be bettered by João Teixeira’s strike from range moments later, however, as the ex-Benfica man found the bottom corner with a well-placed effort to make it 1-1 in the 34th minute.

Chaves took the score-draw into the break, but the Lions threatened to unravel it all as early as the first minute of the second period, with Paulinho denied a goal by the linesman’s flag. In the 55th minute, Paulinho was left frustrated once more by a second offside call as he headed home from Nuno Santos’ cross.

The visitors were eventually able to reinstate their lead, once more through Pedro Gonçalves, finding the far-corner with a strike to rival that of João Teixeira’s in the first half, taking his personal record for the season to 12 league goals.

On the counter, Sporting found daylight with goal number three as Paulinho fed Nuno Santos, who was fortunate enough to wheel away in celebration after hitting the target via a notable deflection in the 70th minute.

Things went from bad to worse for Chaves in the 84th minute after Pedro Gonçalves was bundled over inside the box for a second penalty of the night, with the forward kind enough to pass on the opportunity to claim a hat-trick and gift the young Youssef Chermiti with the spot-kick.

Rodrigo held onto Chaves’ pride, however, with a good save from Chermiti’s right-footed strike, keeping out a fourth goal for Sporting.

As the clock ticked on, the hosts could only find the time to claw one back on the stroke of the final whistle through Héctor Hernandez, enabling the Lisbon giants to stay within 8 points of 3rd-placed Braga.