Irankunda or Zalazar? Sporting's free-kick taker | OneFootball

Sporting have established a new pecking order for direct free-kicks. Rui Borges now has several specialist options and has set a preference order: Rodrigo ZalazarNestory Irankunda, Geny Catamo, Flávio Gonçalves and Zeno Debast.

The move comes after several years in which the Lions struggled to turn set-pieces into goals. Pedro Gonçalves, Morten Hjulmand, Viktor Gyökeres, Marcus Edwards and Francisco Trincão all took on that responsibility at different times, but none managed to establish himself consistently.

The recent record helps show the scale of the gap. Before Zalazar’s stunning strike against Galatasaray in the Champions League, the last direct free-kick scored by Sporting had come from Pedro Gonçalves, in March 2026, against Alverca, in a 4-1 win. To find the one before that, you have to go back to April 2025, when Gyökeres scored that way against Moreirense.

This season has, however, brought new weapons for that area. The Uruguayan has already shown his quality by scoring a brilliantly taken free-kick against Galatasaray, while Irankunda made the most of the international break by scoring an excellent direct free-kick against Brazil.

With five identified options, Rui Borges is therefore looking to get more out of this aspect and prevent Sporting from continuing to rely on sporadic moments to score from direct free-kicks. The squad rebuild has brought in players with different characteristics, and the coach intends to make the most of that.

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