Despite Champions exit, foreign press impressed by Sporting | OneFootball

Sporting’s elimination from the Champions League did not stop the foreign press from praising the display the Lions produced at Arsenal’s ground. Above all the English media, who left plenty of positive remarks about Rui Borges’s team.

“Sporting’s coach must feel hard done by after seeing his team eliminated, but he can be proud of the performances the side produced against the Premier League leaders,” reads the BBC’s analysis, which said that “Arsenal had to be at their very best defensively to get past Sporting and were lucky not to concede, with Araújo hitting the bar in the first leg and Catamo striking the post in the second.”

Individually, the standout was the “elegant Trincão”, who “made the Portuguese side look like a threat at all times”, as well as “Catamo’s pace”, which “constantly caused problems for Arsenal’s defence”. Finally, the BBC summed up the match like this: “Impressive Sporting push Arsenal to the limit.”

Meanwhile, The Athletic praised Luís Suárez’s display in comparison with Viktor Gyökeres’. “In a game with few goalscoring chances, Sporting’s current striker still managed to comfortably outperform the player he replaced,” wrote the English newspaper, before going on to criticise the Swede.

“Arsenal fans were hoping for a goal man, just as Sporting’s were used to. But this was not a good night for the Gyökeres ultras. By contrast, Suárez was doing everything a striker should do when he is not exactly doing what he is paid to do,” which would be scoring goals.

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