Tondela 0-3 Sporting: Lions too strong for struggling Tondela | OneFootball

Despite an out-of-this-world display by Tondela goalkeeper Bernardo Fontes, Sporting swept to victory at Estádio João Cardoso to reclaim a share of top spot with FC Porto ahead of the Dragons’ match tomorrow.

Goals from Luis Suárez, Pedro Gonçalves and Geovany Quenda earned the visitors all three points, and only a series of superb saves by Fontes – the Brazilian stopper made 13 saves in total – prevented an embarrassing final score for the hosts.

Suárez strikes

Fontes had already thwarted Gonçalves and Geny Catamo early doors before Luis Suárez broke the deadlock in the 18th minute, the Colombian striker twisting one way and another and firing low across goal with the ball nestling in the net after striking the post.

The rest of the half was a festival of missed chances by the Lisbon outfit, which in conjunction with excellent goalkeeping from Fontes kept the difference down to one goal at the break, the shot-stopper doing especially well to deny Suárez on two more occasions and Pote.

The second half was more of the same in a match of one-way traffic. Catamo was next to be frustrated by the home goalkeeper’s inspirational display, but Sporting’s dominance was at last translated into a second goal when Pedro Gonçalves exchanged passes with Francisco Trincão and fired powerfully into the top corner of the net.

As Sporting took their foot off the accelerator Tondela enjoyed their best spell of the match, but were unable to test Rui Silva.

Supersonic Alisson

Rui Borges’ men put the icing on the cake as three substitutes combined to complete the scoring. Alisson raced towards goal, his high-speed dribble creating space for Matheus Reis to cross to the second post where Quenda headed firmly into the net.

Sporting play Alverca twice at home in the coming week in the Taça da Liga (Tuesday) and in the Liga Betclic (Friday), and will be looking to build on the 7 victories in their last  9 matches.

Tondela will go back to the drawing board and vast improvement is needed if Ivo Vieira’s team is to have a chance of avoiding immediate relegation back down to Liga II.