Sporting lack cutting edge, draw with UD Leiria in season opener (1-1) | OneFootball

Sporting’s under-23 team began the new edition of the Next Gen League with a 1-1 draw against UD Leiria this Tuesday at the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy. The team, now coached by Leandro Grimi, therefore started the season slightly below expectations, picking up just one point.

The Lions took on a bigger role from the outset and went into the break on top, although they were unable to turn their superiority into goals. The best chance fell to Diogo Martins in the 21st minute, when he broke through one-on-one and tried to chip the goalkeeper, but ended up sending the ball over.

At the other end, the side from Leiria hardly managed to get into Sporting’s box, but they did threaten in one move when Tauzy got past Diogo Clara and went down in a challenge with Stasiak. The referee felt there was no reason to award a penalty and waved play on.

Sporting’s lead came early in the second half, in the 58th minute, through Daniel Lopes, who had come on six minutes earlier in place of the injured Sandro Ferreira. Rafael Besugo led the break and the forward finished to make it 1-0, but União de Leiria responded in the 71st minute, with Xavier Cavaco converting a penalty conceded by Diogo Clara on Sebastião Leandro.

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