Twenty five games down after the latest round of matches, Liga Bwin’s 2021/22 season continued to entertain and intrigue in Portugal.
Santa Clara and Vitória Guimarães both arrested some recent poor form with important wins over Vizela and Famalicão respectively. Marítimo took advantage of the continued slumps from early season high flyers Estoril and Portimonense, the Madeira side jumping over the pair and into the top seven after beating Moreirense.
The “big three” continue to dominate at the top end of the division, Porto and Benfica recording victories while the pair’s rivals Sporting remained sandwiched in between courtesy of a triumph over Arouca. Returning hero Islam Slimani scored his first Alvalade goals in nearly six years, the Algerian striker is our PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.
Now entering the twilight years of his career at the age of 33, Islam Slimani returned to Sporting in the winter transfer window this year having originally signed for the Lions back in 2013 from CR Belouizdad in his native Algeria. Sandwiched in between his two spells in Lisbon has been a myriad of moves across Europe, taking in some big clubs like Lyon, Monaco, Leicester City, Newcastle United and Fenerbahçe all to somewhat inconsistent effect.
A powerful and physically dominant striker, Slimani has proved himself as a versatile finisher of goals throughout his career if perhaps not quite as regularly prolific as he would have liked. His game and overall affinity with the fans was arguably never better than in the 2015/16 season with Sporting as he and the team agonisingly missed out the league title with the Algerian in sparkling form throughout the campaign.
Slimani has returned to Sporting though seemingly wishing to right the wrongs of that failed title bid and the Algerian already looks re-acclimated to his old home under Rúben Amorim. Largely settling for substitute appearances in his first few weeks, Slimani made only his second start for the team since his return for Saturday evening’s home contest with Arouca as Sporting looked to maintain the pressure on leaders Porto in the Liga Bwin championship race.
In Amorim’s traditional 3-4-3 setup Slimani replaced Paulinho in attack and was flanked by Spaniard Pablo Sarabia and Portuguese Nuno Santos, the latter replacing the injured Pedro Gonçalves.
The trio may have lacked playing time together but looked a decent unit in a chance-laden if ultimately fruitless first half at Estádio José Alvalade. The hosts thought they took an early lead through Sarabia, who had fired home following excellent work from Slimani to win possession high up the pitch, but a VAR review correctly ruled out the Spanish international’s strike.
Slimani then had a chance of his own to break the deadlock in the 36th minute, showing great instincts and anticipation to gamble and profit on a defensive error from Arouca’s João Basso. The Sporting striker managed to round the advances of goalkeeper Victor Braga but Basso managed to recover and clear Slimani’s eventual rather tame effort on goal.
If the first half was a frustrating affair then Slimani and Sporting wasted little to no time in correcting matters for the home fans in the second period as the hosts took the lead just forty seconds or so after the break. A trademark goal to an extent for the aerially-gifted Algerian striker, Slimani shrugged off the attentions of Mateus Quaresma to expertly guide a terrific header into the net from Pedro Porro’s corner kick.
A trickier header than he made it look, Slimani impressively generated the power and direction on the finish despite moving slightly backwards in his execution to give Sporting a well-earned lead.
The Algerian soon after doubled his tally and ultimately put the game to bed with an altogether more simple finish, tapping into an empty net from Santos’ pass after some well-worked buildup from Sporting.
The only slight disappointment for Slimani on a near perfect evening was to not come home with the match ball, especially as the Algerian was so close to completing a treble in the 76th minute, stretching to try and convert Matheus Nunes’ cutback but the striker’s effort rolled wide of the far post.
Still, very much job done for Sporting as they maintained their title challenge with what proved a quite routine win in the end.
Slimani’s two goal showing will certainly have given his manager something to think about in terms of who is favoured to lead the Lions line in the coming weeks of the season, the Algerian offering much more of a direct goal threat than Paulinho but overall it’s a positive headache for Rúben Amorim.
The reignition of the love affair between Slimani and Sporting could yet heal the heartbreak of the near misses of the past. If the Algerian carries on scoring at this rate, he may yet finally achieve his Primeira Liga title dream.
By Jamie Farr
