Rui Borges’ Sporting secret makes the difference again | OneFootball

Sporting faced difficulties overcoming Famalicão in the 22nd round of the Liga Portugal Betclic, in Alvalade. Due to their lack of precision in finishing open play opportunities, the Lions had to rely on set pieces to unlock the match, which happened in the 82nd minute with a precise header from Daniel Bragança in response to a cross from Francisco Trincão. The aerial game has been worked on by Rui Borges in Alcochete.

According to information revealed by the newspaper Record, the coach and his technical team have emphasized this aspect of the game during training sessions at the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy, and the numbers confirm this. Since the beginning of the season, Sporting has benefited from these tactical systems to untie the knot in several matches.

Regarding corner kick utilization, in retrospect, the goal by the Portuguese U21 international, which gave the national double champions a narrow 1-0 victory over Famalicão, joins five others that Sporting has scored from such plays in league matches. Besides Bragança, this formula was also used by Fotis Ioannidis (Alverca), Morten Hjulmand (Santa Clara), Geny Catamo (AFS SAD), and Luis Suárez with a hat-trick (AFS SAD and Rio Ave, twice).

In this regard, it should be noted that there are seven more goals originating from "dead ball" situations: four resulting from indirect free kicks (Pote against Famalicão, Geny Catamo against Casa Pia, and Eduardo Quaresma and Ivan Fresneda against Estrela da Amadora) and three from penalties (two by Luis Suárez and Pote against Moreirense, in addition to another by the Colombian forward against Arouca).

In total, out of the 56 goals the green and white team has scored in the first 22 rounds of the national competition, 13 result from the effective execution of set-piece strategies by Rui Borges - that is, a little over 23%.

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