Classic match: Sporting 3-6 Benfica | OneFootball

On Sunday, Sporting host Benfica with just one point separating the teams and both clubs having experienced a high degree of turbulence this season.

Scheduled in the festive period between Christmas and New Year this campaign, what is always a feisty fixture is sure to be a huge occasion in the Portuguese capital.

Thirty years ago, the two Lisbon giants played out one of the most incredible matches in their storied rivalry, with one player in particular running riot and putting in one of the greatest ever individual performances in the historical derby.

Portuguese football historian Miguel Lourenço Pereira takes us back to that iconic title decider in 1994.

Palpable passion

Few local derbies are so passionate. Few matches are so iconic. The day SL Benfica visited the José de Alvalade stadium for a title decider against Sporting CP was the day, in the eyes of many, that the Eagles put the final coffin in the Lions’ claim to be the best club in Lisbon. The rivalry that defined the identity of both clubs for decades had on that memorable afternoon one of its most remarkable, unexpected, and brilliant episodes.

It signalled a long list of years of hurt for the home side and, at the same time, despite the epic win, paved the way for the visitor’s upcoming hellish years known as their Vietnam. Nevertheless, surely many fans if given the possibility of avoiding those painful years to come by erasing that match from history would shrug their shoulders and smile in disapproval. After all, what is football if not the passionate rivalry against your neighbours?

Social class divide

Benfica and Sporting have been rivals since their inception. They come to represent different ways to feel and understand the game and despite all the economic and social void of the past being now swept under the rug as times have evolved, the popular ethos of the Águias and the aristocratic heritage of the Leões have survived the passage of time. While Sporting was, like many clubs of their time, a result of the need and will of aristocrats and members of the upper classes to practice sports – and “sports” in their wider scope is an important word when we talk about Sporting – Benfica on the other hand was the result of a group of former students of the Casa Pia school, a place for orphans and students from the poor lower classes, who wanted to embrace a new passion on the still empty grounds of Belém.

Benfica, from its origins, suffered from a permanent sense of disarray. They had to move to the suburb of Benfica, on the other side of town, merging with a local side of that name more focused on cycling than on football, but were quick to move around town until they finally built their home, the old da Luz stadium, in the mid-1950s.

Power shifts from green to red

By then Sporting was already known as the strongest side in the land, and they had their patron, the Viscount of Alvalade and his fortune, including the land where the Campo Grande ground was built – Sporting’s permanent home for decades that gave way to the José de Alvalade. It was a place big enough to draw huge crowds and make the club economically superior to the rest. With that, Sporting were always able to recruit the best players in town – almost wiping Benfica out in the early days – up until the glorious period of the Cinco Violinos, the feared forward line that took them to four consecutive league titles.

Over at the Estádio da Luz, however, the arrival of Otto Gloria, along with a contingent of players from the African colonies such as José Águas, Costa Pereira and Mário Coluna and then, the hiring of Hungarian coach Béla Guttmann, started to shift the balance of power. That process was fast-forwarded when the club managed to take from Sporting’s feeder club in Mozambique a young prospect by the name of Eusébio. That was the moment that Benfica became Portugal’s number one, and one of the great sides in European football.

Although during the 1960s and early part of the 1970s Sporting kind of managed to stay afloat – winning a European trophy and several domestic honours – by the time the 1970s were done, Benfica had found up north a new rival worthy of their dominance in the shape of FC Porto, and Sporting lingered slowly up until 1982 when they won their last league title for a long time. After that, the club hired several high-profile players and managers to no avail while Benfica played three more European finals and kept up their tussle with Porto season in, season out. Then came the 1993/94 season and it seemed the tide was about to change for both sides.

Season of surprises

Benfica found themselves in a very tricky financial situation. They signed Paulo Futre a season before with the help of the RTP investment money. They were surprised in the summer when the filibustering president of Sporting, businessman Sousa Cintra, poached from them two key players in Paulo Sousa and António Pacheco. They were after the crown jewel as well, João Vieira Pinto, recently signed from Boavista, but Benfica held on to their young star in a late effort. Still, Toni, who had kept the job after being promoted mid-season the year before, was aware that the winning side of the previous couple of seasons, FC Porto, and a powerful squad in the hands of Bobby Robson at Alvalade, were superior to his team in terms of expectations to win the league.

A Bola’s match report with the headline: SILENCE, LISTEN TO AN "ANTHEM" TO FOOTBALL

Yet, the season was about to be a box of surprises for all. Porto started poorly under Tomislav Ivic, the man who had guided them to five trophies won in the 1987/88 season, including the European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup, and he was out of work by the end of the calendar year. Sporting began very well in the league and played attractive football but after squandering a comfortable margin brought from Portugal in a European tie against Casino Salzburg, Robson was fired on the return flight home from Austria to everyone’s surprise. The former England national manager, who had never been sacked before in his career, would soon move north to Porto to build what would become the most dominating side in the history of the league over the course of the following five seasons.

Still, Benfica, despite being competitive both domestically and internationally, always seemed to find themselves on the wrong end of some matches, including an iconic away game at Setúbal. Holding on as league leaders for the following weeks, it took a loss against Salgueiros to reduce the gap to a single point over Sporting who were flying under the helm of Carlos Queiroz.

Queiroz builds formidable outfit

It had been the ambition of Cintra to bring the man responsible for back-to-back Under-20 World Cups to the club. After getting fired by the Portuguese Federation for not qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, Queiroz was chosen to make Sporting the stalwart club for youth football in Portugal. He not only revamped the youth system but also decided the best course of action would be signing players he already knew from his days as the Under-20 national manager in a side led by two of the stars of that side, Paulo Sousa and Luís Figo. With the winger in charge, alongside the talented Krasimir Balakov, Sporting pressed for the title and only the loss of Russian wonderkid Sergei Cherbakov, a victim of a car crash that ended his career, seemed to halt the positive mood around the side.

Title race perfectly poised

Believing they were in for the first league win in twelve years, the Leões packed Alvalade for a match that Sporting needed to win to surpass their city rivals on the league table. There would be only four more matches to go so everyone knew what happened here would settle the league’s fate.

It was the 14th of May on a cloudy afternoon when both sides took to the pitch. Toni trusted in his strongest side with Isaías partnering Aílton and João Vieira Pinto in attack. Vítor Paneira gave width from the wing and Stefan Schwarz and Kennedy muscle in the middle, sitting in front of a back-four comprised of António Veloso, Abel Xavier, Carlos Mozer and Hélder Cristóvão, with Neno in goal. Queiroz went all out for the win, pitching Lemajic alongside Valckx, Vujacic, Paulo Torres and Nelson in defence and Paulo Sousa, Nuno Capucho, Balakov and Figo as a very dynamic and forward-minded midfield in support of the attacking duo of Jorge Cadete and Ivaylo Iordanov.

João Vieira Pinto enters the scene

And the hosts drew first blood. A beautifully taken corner on the right by Balakov saw Cadete, later an icon for Celtic supporters, jump higher than his markers and beat Neno. But it wasn’t to be Sporting’s night. It was João Vieira Pinto’s world and everyone was just living in it. A few minutes later the forward charged at the opponent’s defence and still miles away from goal released a thunderbolt shot that found its way into the top corner of net. It would be the first of three goals scored by the “Menino de Ouro”, the player who could have been playing for Sporting but preferred not to.

João Vieira Pinto was awarded a perfect 10/10 in the Benfica player ratings by A Bola

It would be an afternoon for names who would become legends of Portuguese football, a clash between icons of the Golden Generation such as Luís Figo, who not long after put Sporting back into the lead with a header. As he celebrated the television audio caught him screaming the name of Cherbakov, his friend and teammate who was expected to be on the lineup for the match if it wasn’t for that crash. As the home crowd believed they would reach the half-time top of the league, a Maradonian move by JVP on the right, overcoming opponents with sheer class and extraordinary jinking movements saw him beat Lemajic once again in what would become one of the greatest solo goals in history of the Lisbon derby. He wasn’t done. With the rain now pouring from the sky, the number eight headed in for a brilliant hat-trick.

Kamikaze Queiroz

A Bola’s report the next day refers to Sporting’s "SUICIDAL INSTINCT" alluding to Carlos Queiroz’s half-time substitution

Half-time brought the decisive moment. Queiroz, knowing that anything but a win would be suffice for Benfica’s title claims, decided to take out defender Paulo Torres to add the attacking midfielder Pacheco. Sporting effectively played with a hole in their left wing, hoping that the sheer number of attacking players would turn the game around. The plan quickly proved a flawed one. The talented Vítor Paneira swept through Sporting left wing with ease and had all the time in the world to pass the ball into the box, where Pinto was ready to serve as a decoy, allowing the Brazilian Isaías to strike, with no-one from Sporting around him to prevent Benfica’s fourth of the night.

Pinto turns provider

Ten minutes later, the same move all over again, with João Pinto dribbling unopposed on the flank, taking advantage of the ill-fated Queiroz decision, then crossing the ball to Isaías who once again put the ball in the net smoothly. It seemed so easy that even centre-back Hélder joined the party, moving through the left alongside João Pinto, exchanging passes, until the number 8 performed a beautiful assist for the defender to smash the sixth and final away goal of the night.

"The game of my life" said João Vieira Pinto in the aftermath of his wondrous display. JVP would help Sporting win the league later in his career.

Sporting eventually scored a third from the spot but it was already too late in the game. Benfica celebrated not only one of their biggest wins at Alvalade but, essentially, the title win. Sporting collapsed emotionally and were even eventually overtaken by Porto on the last day of the league season finishing a disappointing third, losing the Cup final to the northern side as well a few days later at Jamor.

Benfica’s last hurrah before decade of decline

Strangely enough, this iconic night and the following title win wasn’t enough for Toni to keep his job as club manager. In retrospect, it was one of the poorest decisions in the history of the club. Benfica collapsed the following season with Artur Jorge at the helm and for ten years weren’t able to win the league once, a period known as “our Vietnam” for Águias supporters.

Sporting under Queiroz pressed the following season for the title against Robson’s Porto, but, once again, the last match at Alvalade against the Dragões proved decisive, with a late Domingos goal clinching the title for the Azuis e Brancos. For two years in a row, the Sporting supporters had to witness first-hand how their great rivals celebrated at their expense in their own stadium. They would eventually put an end to eighteen years of hurt in 2000, winning the league again in 2002 with João Vieira Pinto, released from his contract by Benfica during Euro 2000, as one of their star figures. It would be the prelude to another nineteen years without a league win up until the arrival of Ruben Amorim.

Since 1994 there have been many Derbies full of magic, unexpected outcomes and memorable goals but none remains so clearly in the memory of supporters from both sides of the Lisbon divide as that rainy May day thirty years ago.