Sporting's record is worrying after first-day slip in Portuguese league | OneFootball

Sporting’s draw away to Estrela da Amadora left an unpromising statistic for the Lions. Since the start of the century, the green-and-white side have never managed to win the national title in seasons when they failed to win on the opening matchday. In that period, the best results achieved after a winless start were two third-place finishes, in 2009/10 and 2014/15.

In the last three seasons, Sporting had managed to start the league campaign with wins, and on two of those occasions that start ended up coinciding with winning the title. The exception came in 2022/23, when the team then coached by Ruben Amorim drew 3-3 against Braga in the opening round and finished the league in fourth place.

The draw in Reboleira also once again exposed a weakness that had already marked the previous season: the Lions’ difficulty in protecting leads. In 2025/26, Rui Borges let 10 favorable results slip away across all competitions. Now, against Estrela, he once again squandered a two-goal lead, something that had already happened three times with the coach from Trás-os-Montes in charge, against V. Guimarães, AVS, and Tondela.

Despite the result, Rodrigo Zalazar made a hugely impactful debut in the Sporting shirt. The new signing scored his first official goal for Sporting and became the sixth Uruguayan to score for the Club, after Coates, Maxi Araújo, Carlos Bueno, José Caraballo, and Manuel Ugarte

. The 21-year-old left-back was named in the starting lineup by Rui Borges because of the limitations on the flank. Maxi Araújo was suspended and Nuno Santos is still not fully fit.

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