Porto and Sporting unbeaten with João Gonçalves, few cards shown | OneFootball

João Gonçalves was appointed by the Professional Section of the Arbitration Council of the Portuguese Football Federation to officiate the first major classic of the 2025/26 I Liga, between Sporting and FC Porto, on Saturday.

At 33 years old and affiliated with the Porto Football Association, the young referee will make his debut in classics, although he has already officiated FC Porto on five occasions and Sporting in four official matches.

In the nine games he refereed involving Leões and Dragões, neither team was defeated and only in one match did they not manage to win.

João Gonçalves is characterized by prioritizing the game and a restrained management of discipline, rarely resorting to cards. Among those nine matches, he only showed a red card for accumulation once.

As for yellow cards, he has been restrained: there were 19 cards in FC Porto's games and 16 in Sporting's matches.

FC Porto: five games, five victories for Porto

This will be the sixth official game of FC Porto that João Gonçalves will referee. So far, with him officiating, the Dragões have always won: five matches, five victories, 17 goals scored and two conceded.

João Gonçalves made his debut as a referee in FC Porto's games at 31 years old, in 2023, when he officiated the blue and white's thrashing of Arouca (4-0) in the 2023/24 Portuguese Cup – a calm match where he showed two yellows, both to Arouca players: David Simão and Antony.

In the same season, he made his debut refereeing FC Porto in the I Liga, in the 3-1 victory against Casa Pia, in the 13th round, which marked the 500th game of coach Sérgio Conceição in charge of Portuguese teams. In that game, he showed three yellows to FC Porto members and one to a player from the Gansos.

In the same year, he was also in FC Porto 4-1 Vizela (28th round), showing three yellows to Vizela players, two of them for accumulation to Matías Lacava, who was sent off in the 49th minute.

Last season, he officiated the Dragões twice: in the 4-0 against Boavista, in the 16th round of the I Liga (four yellows to FC Porto and two to Boavista), and in the 2-0 against Arouca, in the 24th round (two yellows to Porto players and two to the athletes of the Lobos da Serra da Freita).

In total, he showed nine yellows to FC Porto players, 10 to the Dragões' opponents, and one red card for accumulation.

Sporting: four games, three victories for the Leões

Sporting only failed to win once with João Gonçalves officiating: it was in the spectacular 4-4 draw with Vitória de Guimarães, in the 17th round of the 2024/25 I Liga, a match in which he showed eight yellows, four for each team.

In the remaining three games, the Leões emerged victorious. The first was in the 33rd round of 2023/24, with a 1-0 victory over Estoril at António Coimbra da Mota – in that game only two yellows, both to Canarinho players, at 75′ and 90+1′.

He refereed another Sporting away match at Amoreira (3-0), in the 7th round of the 2024/25 I Liga, again with only two yellows, both to Estoril. The other match was the 3-1 victory over Rio Ave, with two yellows for each team.

In disciplinary terms, he showed 10 yellows to Sporting's opponents and six to the Leões' players.

The Sporting–FC Porto match is scheduled for 8:30 PM on Saturday, in Alvalade. Ângelo Carneiro and Pedro Ribeiro will be the assistant referees; Miguel Nogueira will be the fourth referee. Rui Costa will be in the video assistant referee, assisted by Paulo Brás.

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