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| Thursday, 11 March 2010 22:30 |
Europa League: 9-man Sporting battle for draw in MadridAtletico Madrid 0-0 Sporting  Sporting survived the first-half dismissal of Leandro Grimi to leave the Vicente Calderon with a goalless draw from their Europa League first-leg tie with Atletico Madrid.The Argentine was sent off after half an hour for two bookable offences, but Carlos Carvalhal’s men managed to hold the Spaniards at bay for the remainder of the encounter, while Tonel also saw red late on for a tussle with Sergio Aguero. Carlos Carvalhal’s pre-match promise that Sporting would not adopt a defensive approach appeared to be fulfilled as the Portuguese side made a lively start, with Marat Izmailov shooting wide with an ambitious effort early on. However, chances were scarce throughout what was a largely forgettable encounter. The closest either side came to finding a breakthrough came in the first half when Liedson seized on an error by Alvaro Dominguez and attempted to catch Atletico goalkeeper David de Gea, only to see his lobbed effort clip the crossbar. Sporting’s hopes of an away goal suffered a huge blow just after the half hour mark when Grimi received his marching orders. The left-back had already received one caution ten minutes into the match, when he was rightly issued a second yellow for a wild hack on Jose Antonio Reyes after the ex-Benfica man had beaten Grimi on the right flank. The biggest danger to Sporting for remainder of the match was Sergio Aguero, with the Argentine youngster offering the only real spark in what was a largely ineffective Atletico attacking performance. The 21-year-old troubled Sporting with a series of mazy runs, but could not find an end product after getting into some good shooting positions. Sporting were able to restrict their opponents to little in the way of genuine openings, although the closing few minutes were made tense by Tonel’s late dismissal. The defender was given a straight red card for an off-the-ball incident with Aguero, in which Tonel appeared to raise his hands in shoving the Atletico man to the ground. Although unable to find an away goal on the night, Sporting will be pleased with their performance having played an hour with a numerical disadvantage, and will be hoping for a repeat of the showing against Everton in the last round when the two teams meet for the second leg at Alvalade next week. At. Madrid: De Gea; António Lopez, Perea (Valera, 12'), Ujfalusi e Álvaro Dominguez; Paulo Assunção; Reyes, Raul Garcia (Jurado, 71') e Simão (Salvio, 57'); Fórlan e Aguero. Yellow Cards: Ujfalusi (81') Sporting: Rui Patrício; Abel, Tonel, Polga e Grimi; Pedro Mendes e Miguel Veloso (Adrien, 84'); Pereirinha (Pedro Silva, 60'), João Moutinho e Izmailov; Liedson (Saleiro, 89'). Yellow Cards: Grimi (9, 31) Veloso (53), Pereirinha (60), Saleiro (94') Red Cards: Grimi (31), Tonel (89') |
Sporting need to keep up the good work and they should finish them off.
Cheers
we,we
Go Sporting!
by the way the ways things look no portuguese team will make the CL next year. Thanks a lot Benfica!