Porto 0-0 Sporting CP - Lions hold on to reach the Portuguese Cup final | OneFootball

Sporting Clube de Portugal are into the 2026 Portuguese Cup final after earning a 0-0 hard fought draw in Porto. The point was enough to get through after a 1-0 first leg win in Lisboa.

William Gomes was heavily involved at Estádio do Dragão, the winger fortunate to avoid an early booking for a late challenge on Maxi Araújo.

The winger then got to the ball ahead of Gonçalo Inácio on the edge of the box, both players going down but no foul or card forthcoming. Francesco Farioli was booked for arguing with referee Miguel Nogueira.

Inácio was unable to continue and replaced by Zeno Debast. Geny Catamo was causing Porto’s defence plenty of problems down the right wing, his cross narrowly evading Geovany Quenda before an effort that was cleared by Jan Bednarek.

Hjulmand was booked for taking out Oskar Pietuszewski as the contest increasingly became slowed down by fouls and free kicks.

Porto went close on the stroke of half-time when Pietuszewski played a 1-2 with Gabri Veiga and teeed up the Spaniard who shot straight into Debast who had gone to ground. Lucho González was not as diplomatic as Farioli, the assistant manager sent off as the Dragons’ frustrations continued.

Pablo Rosario fired over the bar in added time and Morten Hjulmand lasted six minutes into the second half before he was forced off injured and replaced by Daniel Bragança. Thiago Silva then made way for Alan Varela which saw Rosario move into central defence.

Porto piled on the pressure with Victor Froholdt firing at Rui Silva. Ousmane Diomande and Hidemasa Morita produced vital blocks as Sporting held firm.

Farioli brought on Rodrigo Mora, Pepê and Terem Moffi for Veiga, Pietuszewski and Deniz Gül. Ricardo Mangas, Pote and Luís Guilherme came on for Araújo, Trincão and Quenda before Alberto Costa made way for Seko Fofana.

Varela was given a yellow card for an ankle breaker on Luis Suárez, the midfielder eventually shown a straight red following a VAR intervention.

Sporting had a great chance to end the contest in added time when Suárez released Guilherme, the Brazilian unable to beat Diogo Costa who kept the tie alive. Porto would get one final chance.

Moffi headed Pepê’s corner at Silva who made a fine save, Rosario set to pounce before Morita made a crucial clearance. The ball sat up for Froholt who got ahead of Eduardo Quaresma and headed a glorious opportunity over the bar.

Rui Borge’s side now have a great chance to claim the consolation prize in Jamor after falling out of contention in the Liga, Sporting to face Torreense or Fafe in the Portuguese Cup final on Sunday 24 May.

Francesco Farioli didn't have much praise for Sporting or the officials: "I'm proud of our performance. I think it was clear who played today and what the others did. We deserved the goal we didn't get. We dominated at all times and they came here to lose. We crushed the opponent on the pitch. FC Porto is back."

"We tried everything, and the last play of the game says a lot. It wasn't enough. Some images were clear, and the story has been the same since the beginning of the season. I barely have the energy to comment on what has been happening"

"I didn't see a better team than us, either here in the Cup or in the Europa League. We have to accept the result, although I think we deserved more. We have to finish the job in the League and that has to be the mentality. Today we played with the spirit of the Dragon. Our fans also celebrated Sporting's return from the locker room, which in this game took 22 minutes to happen."

Rui Jorge had a different perspective: "We wanted to win the game. We knew we were going to break down a bit, that's natural. We were clearly better in the first half, FC Porto were better in the second half. We lost energy. It was another great demonstration from this group."

"Only a great team could win this game. They've been giving their all, they've played some beautiful games. We were going to have to fight and be very united. We had a lot of quality in possession, we were calm, we managed to do that many times.

"In the second half we fell apart. It wouldn't have been possible to do much more, it's clear that the team was tired. We had to manage the misfortunes, with Inácio's sprain and Morten's sprain."