Former Sporting presidential candidate blames Rui Borges: lack of ambition | OneFootball

Sporting lost to Benfica (2-1) last Sunday, April 19, and may have handed the national championship title to Porto on a silver platter. At the end of the match, which was only decided in stoppage time, the green-and-white supporters were left devastated.

"Luck turned its back on Sporting and, in football, irony is cruel: we missed a penalty and then conceded from a penalty; we had a goal disallowed and right after that Benfica scored. Anyone who wants to be champion cannot lose at home against their direct rivals. The dream of a third straight title ended here," stressed Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, speaking to Record newspaper.

For his part, João Paiva dos Santos, a former candidate for the lions’ presidency, criticized João Pinheiro and Rui Borges: "Sporting were the better team and deserved all three points. We lost for three reasons: poor refereeing, bad luck, and the coach’s lack of ambition. There are games like that; that’s football. We will fight until the end".

Marco Chagas also gave his analysis, believing that the leonine team will still overtake the Eagles in the table: "If you don’t score, you lose. Sporting’s fatigue is noticeable, as is the quality of Benfica’s squad, which at the moment is better than Sporting’s. The title is probably gone, even more so after this defeat, but I believe we will regain second place".

With this defeat — the eighth in 49 matches this season — Rui Borges’ side remain on 71 points and drop to third place in the Liga Portugal Betclic standings. Porto (79) are in first place (with one more match played). Benfica are second with 72 points, also having played one more game.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.