23 October 2006, by Tom Kundert

Top two play out entertaining draw

Sporting 1-1 Porto

Porto and Sporting remain in the top two positions after a 1-1 draw at Alvalade last night. Djalo put the home team in front shortly before half time, but two minutes into the second period Ricardo Quaresma scored the equaliser for Porto.

Some fine goalkeeping from Helton kept the Lions at bay throughout the match, and Liedson hit the post late on as Sporting pressed hard for the winner. Porto will be pleased to return north with a point in the bag.

Sporting went straight onto the attack from the off, and twice came close to scoring in the first five minutes. First a looping header from Paredes was tipped over the bar by Helton at full stretch, then Djalo snatched at a shot and hit the ball wide when well placed ten metres out.

On 19 minutes the home side were again close to a breakthrough when Bruno Alves clattered into his own goalkeeper as Helton tried to collect a cross, and the ball fell to Liedson but his shot hit the leg of Alves and was scrambled clear by Marek Cech.

After weathering the storm, Porto began to threaten on the counter-attack. Quaresma sent a cross-shot wide and Postiga showed some good skill to get past Tonel but his shot was easily gathered by Ricardo.

Djalo goal

Two minutes before the break the excellent Tello did well to keep the ball in play near the corner flag and played a short pass to Nani. The young winger hit a pinpoint cross onto the head of Yannick Djalo who headed past Helton to send the vast majority of the crowd wild with delight, and secure a half-time lead.

The home fans’ joy was cut short just two minutes into the second half, however. Some poor defending was punished by Quaresma who latched onto a loose clearance to volley the ball into the net.

Quaresma was tormenting Caneira on the left flank as Porto enjoyed their best period of the match, and Sporting were relieved to see Jorginho fire hopelessly wide from a good shooting position.

Paulo Bento sent on Carlos Martins and Alecsandro for an out-of-sorts Nani and Paredes, and Sporting gradually reasserted their domination of the game. A superb dummy by Liedson created himself a shooting opportunity but the Brazilian hit his effort over.

Liedson then came even closer when he headed a Carlos Martins cross powerfully towards goal and could not believe his luck as the ball crashed back off the post with Helton beaten.

The two coaches summed up the match nicely in their post-match interviews, with Porto’s Jesulado Ferreira admitting “the result was better than the performance”, while his counterpart Paulo Bento said “the performance was better than the result for Sporting”.

Sporting:
Ricardo, Caneira (Miguel Garcia, 76), Tonel, Polga, Tello, Custodio, Paredes (Alecsandro, 63), Moutinho, Nani (Carlos Martins, 51m), Djalo, Liedson
Yellow Cards: Nani (7), Caneira (46), Miguel Garcia (84), Carlos Martins (87), Tonel (94)

FC Porto: Helton, Fucile, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Cech, Raul Meireles, Paulo Assuncao (Jorginho, 45), Lucho Gonzalez, Lisandro (Diogo Valente, 70), Postiga, Quaresma (Bruno Moraes, 76)
Yellow Cards: Paulo Assuncao (32), Jorginho (66), Quaresma (69), Lucho Gonzalez (69), Diogo Valente (93)

Goals:
[1-0] Djalo, 43
[1-1] Quaresma, 47