Flashback to Boavista 0-4 Sporting in 2004/05 and what was Sporting Clube de Portugal’s almost greatest ever season | OneFootball

The night José Peseiro’s Liedson-inspired Lions put Boavista to the sword

Between Lazlo Boloni’s record-breaking 2001/02 season – when the Lions did the double – and Ruben Amorim’s first title win, Sporting spent almost two decades watching how their two big rivals, Porto and Benfica, wrapped up all the honours. On more than one occasion they were close to lifting the trophy but for different reasons always fell short at the decisive moment. Whether it was Bryan Ruiz’s miss that condemned Jorge Jesus’ side in 2015 or some appalling albeit unexpected defeats under Paulo Bento, something was always missing.

A Bola alludes to Sporting’s great "Cinco Violinos" team in its headline the day after the thrashing of Boavista at the Bessa

No season was as painful though as the 2004/05 campaign, when the Green and Whites were on the brink of a historic double including European glory and fell short of both counts. Still, during that campaign, the Alvalade side played brilliant football. When they visited the Bessa stadium, Sporting put on a show and they simultaneously destroyed the final Boavista version that had been able to look any of the Big Three eye to eye.

Low expectations under new coach Peseiro

The 2004/05 season started at the Alvalade under a cloud of doubts. There was nothing left from their title-winning seasons at the turn of the century. Over the following years, the club had promoted two of the most brilliant youth players in the history of Portuguese football, Ricardo Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo, only to fall short every time of winning any sort of honours. With both now far away – and Quaresma would return to Portugal that season but to sign for FC Porto as part of the deal that sent Deco the other way to Barcelona – the club was now desperately looking to relight its fire.

It was not apparently a high-quality squad that had been put together for José Peseiro. The young coach himself was a newcomer who had worked as Carlos Queiroz’s assistant and was touted as the next big thing in Portugal’s management school, hyped up further by the success of the similarly aged José Mourinho. While Benfica had proved to be Porto’s biggest title challenger the year before, the departure of José António Camacho and the signing of Italian veteran Giovanni Trapattoni wasn’t a move met with enthusiasm by the Eagles’ supporters.

Rivals falter

Porto had also enjoyed a turbulent summer. Recent Champions League winners, the Dragons were prisoners of their own success. Mourinho departed to London and took Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho with him while Deco moved to Barcelona, fulfilling a Pinto da Costa promise from the previous season. Nuno Valente, Pedro Mendes and Dimitri Alenichev were also out by then but the tenure of Italian manager Luigi Del Neri was dramatic and he was replaced by Victor Fernandez even before the league started.

Porto’s transfer pot, engorged by high-profile sales, allowed Pinto da Costa to sign huge Brazilian prospects such as Diego and Luís Fabiano, with Quaresma being added to the squad as well. Heavy favourites to claim the league, Porto started the season well, winning the Super Cup and lifting the last ever Intercontinental trophy in December, but everything else was a disaster. A full squad revamp in January with more European Cup winners out and more South American players coming in, alongside Victor Fernandez’s sacking, meant trouble up north. As Benfica were timidly winning points by the lowest of margins, it meant that entertainment could only be found in one place: Alvalade.

A Bola’s match report headline: "When the green velvet creates an irresistible attraction"

Carefree football

Peseiro had applied many of his footballing principles to the side and Sporting played as attractively as they did carelessly. They were capable of the very best and the utmost worst and that was palpable during the long season. Still, they were able to compete. Their European campaign was memorable, with the squad progressing from the UEFA Cup group stages until the last rounds of the competition. At the same time, despite some surprising dropped points, they seemed to be the only team able to put up a fight against the depressing Benfica of Trapattoni who won without ever offering an everlasting impression of any sort of football quality in their ranks.

Defeats against the likes of Penafiel, Nacional, Marítimo and Belenenses badly hurt Sporting’s title prospects but in January they defeated Benfica 2-1 and at the end of March they did the same against Porto. In one of the worst-ever league seasons in Portuguese footballing history, they were clearly the best of the three title contenders. But was it enough? Lagging behind Benfica on the league table, Peseiro’s men had just overcome Middlesborough in the UEFA Cup last eight – the same side that would reach the final the following season – when they were due to travel to Bessa.

Boavista also in the title mix

Boavista were still a well-respected side after six seasons during which they were always able to go toe to toe with any of the Big Three. Jaime Pacheco’s side might have not been as good as in previous seasons but they were still a tough nut to crack and in view of Sporting’s upcoming schedule – five winnable matches before the showdown against Benfica – it was crucial that the Lions returned from the trip up north with the much-needed three points.

The locals were still fighting for the title though, as they had the same 45 points as Sporting, FC Porto, and Braga, six behind Benfica. A win would mean overcoming a title challenger and keeping the pace with Trapattoni’s men. Knowing they would welcome Porto next, a best-case scenario of two victories would put Boavista in prime position to be Benfica’s main title challengers. It was expected to be a match decided by the smallest of margins. Instead, it became the perfect visiting card for the aspiring Sporting for the last two months of the season.

Mismatch in theory… and on the pitch

The match was played on 2 April, with a late Saturday kick-off. The stadium fell still for a minute’s silence in memory of Pope John Paul II who had been declared dead hours before, in Rome. Peseiro called up his usual starting eleven, with Ricardo – the former Boavista star – in goal, with Beto, Polga, Rui Jorge and Rogério playing from the back, while Pedro Barbosa, Hugo Viana, Fábio Rochemback and a teenage João Moutinho supported the attacking partnership of Sá Pinto and Liedson, the Brazilian by now a certainty of goals aplenty having settled in the league.

Free-scoring Brazilian striker Liedson was at the peak of his powers

On paper Boavista were a much weaker side with veteran goalkeeper William accompanied by Nélson, Éder, Cadú, Milhazes, Tiago, former midfielder Sporting Toñito, Lucas and Zé Manel, with Hugo Almeida and Diogo Valente playing up front. Looking back it seems a miracle that Boavista were able to present any sort of title challenge with a side like that, albeit with veterans like Fary Faye, Martelinho and icon João Vieira Pinto ready to come off the bench. Pinto, a former Boavista graduate, had come back to end his career where it all started, after ten seasons in Lisbon with Benfica and Sporting, with whom he won the league in 2002.

It was from the dugout that the veteran had to witness a brilliant first half from his former team that completely destroyed the locals’ spirit with fast and precise movements in attack. Liedson scored the opener in the 19th minute, taking advantage of a mistake by Éder after a brilliant pass from Barbosa. Sporting were playing much better than the hosts and the goal had been coming. When centre-back Beto netted the second, ten minutes later, with a header from a corner, the match seemed wrapped up.

No let-up from rampant Sporting

Only, there were still 45 minutes to play and Sporting got carried away and kept on knocking on William’s goal, when Éder, once again and after being denied a goal minutes earlier, fouled Sá Pinto inside the box. A second yellow and a penalty awarded that Liedson scored without blinking. Carlos Martins, who had just come on for Barbosa, still found time to score a fourth after a brilliant solo run. Both William and Rui Jorge found themselves red-carded in the dying seconds and Boavista could have ended up with two more in the bag if it wasn’t for the visitors’ lack of clarity in front of goal.

Sporting’s player ratings as per A Bola

The Leões win at the Bessa ground just about finished off Boavista’s last title run in their history. Even though the Axadrezados bounced back to beat Porto the following week, they didn’t win a single match after that until the end of the campaign. Losses against Beira-Mar, Vitória FC, Académica, Braga and Vitória SC condemned them to miss out on European competition the following season and brought the end to Loureiro’s and Pacheco’s brilliant sporting project. Sporting, on the other hand, were greatly motivated after routing the Axadrezados. They not only reached the UEFA Cup final by beating Newcastle United and AZ Alkmaar but also defeated Beira-Mar, Moreirense, Braga and Vitória SC.

Set up for a memorable week

Only an unexpected draw against Académica cast clouds over their hopes of clinching the league title before their visit to the Estádio da Luz on 14 May. Sporting were tied with Benfica on points but had won the first game and therefore had the better head-to-head record meaning a draw would suffice to keep them in first place. Three days later they were also due to play CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Cup final that would be hosted at their home ground of Alvalade. It seemed the perfect week for the Leões was in the cards with the possibility of winning their second-ever European trophy and beating their hometown rival in the title race after having been seven points behind a real prospect.

In the end the exact opposite happened most dramatically. A late goal by Luisão, after a Ricardo blunder, allowed Benfica to win and just about clinch the league title some thought by then they had already lost and days later it was the Russian side who came out victors in a final where Sporting scored first but were later hammered by their rivals. To make things even worse, the next weekend Sporting lost at home against Nacional, Porto completed a late surge to clinch second place and Benfica drew at the Bessa to allow them to win their first title in twelve seasons. The combination of results saw Sporting miss out on Champions League football.

The Lions had lost three times in eight days and memories from a season that promised so much ended in traumatic fashion. Some go as far as to pinpoint that moment and the pain of seeing what looked like glory all go up in smoke as the reason the club were unable to compete for the league for the next decade and a half.

No trophies but sparkling football

Still, alongside Liedson’s brilliant campaign that saw him crowned top scorer of the league, it is unfair to look back and not remember how well that Sporting team could actually play and how they were close by merit alone to reaching what seemed an impossible feat – and what would have been their greatest ever season. Memories of those final matches will probably never fade away, but nights like the one at Boavista will always tell a different story, of a team that, during that particular year, were actually the best side in Portuguese football.