Despite derby defeat, Sporting fans set a record | OneFootball

José Alvalade Stadium hosted, this Sunday, the “derby of all derbies”, in a match counting for the 30th round of the Liga Portugal Betclic. The match between Sporting and Benfica set an attendance record at the Lions’ home ground, which welcomed 51,470 spectators in the stands out of 52,000 available seats.

After the closure of the moat and the renovation of the venue, completed at the start of the current season, the green and whites introduced 2,000 new seats at José Alvalade Stadium, increasing its capacity to 52,000. The previous record belonged to the home match of Rui Borges’s side against French team PSG, on January 20, in the 7th round of the Champions League league phase, a game Sporting ended up winning 2-1, with 51,428 spectators. Earlier, in the 4th round of this edition of the Portuguese league, the record had already been broken after the renovation of the Lions’ ground, when they hosted Porto on August 30, 2025, with 50,946 fans in the stands.

In the years before the capacity increase, the record had been set in the clash between Sporting and Real Madrid (2-1), in 2016, in a game attended by 50,046 spectators. The inauguration of the venue, built to host matches at Euro 2004, featured England’s Manchester United in a friendly that the Alvalade side won 3-1 in front of 49,992 people.

As for Sunday’s derby, Benfica came out on top away to Sporting, winning 2-1 with a stoppage-time goal that reignited the battle for second place, with Porto extending the gap over the second-placed side and pulling further clear at the top. Norwegian forward Andreas Schjelderup opened the scoring for the Eagles in the 27th minute from the penalty spot, after Luis Suárez had missed a penalty in the 19th minute. However, Hidemasa Morita restored parity in the 72nd minute, moments before Rafa Silva, in the 90+3rd minute, sealed the match in Benfica’s favor.

As a result, Benfica remain unbeaten in the league, provisionally moving up to second place in the table with 72 points. Sporting, currently third with 71 points and one game in hand, are also fighting for a Champions League place next season. After the two-time national champions’ defeat, Porto won their match at home to Tondela, increasing the gap to their main rivals and moving to 79 points from 30 games.

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