Another William Gomes wonder goal helps Porto beat Sporting 2-1 at Alvalade | OneFootball

Before the international break Porto laid down a marker in the Portuguese title race by beating champions Sporting 2-1 in Lisbon to make it four wins out of four in 2025/26 and go clear at the top of the nascent table.

An exciting game flowed one way and the other with two quickfire goals by the visitors in the second half from Luuk de Jong and William Gomes proving decisive. The strike from the Brazilian was a brilliant curling effort into the top corner to mirror the goal he scored last week against Casa Pia.

Sporting fought back and a Nehuén Pérez own goal gave the home fans hope. It took a brilliant save by Diogo Costa tipping Luis Suárez’s fierce shot over the bar to ensure the three points travelled up north with the Dragons.

Tom Kundert reports from the José Alvalade stadium.

There were enforced injury changes for both sides with Giorgi Kochorashvili replacing Morita for the hosts, while for Porto Gabri Veiga missed out and Samu was only fit enough for the bench. That meant a first start of the season for Rodrigo Mora.

Lightning start

Porto kicked off with nine outfield players lined up on the half-way line, ready to burst forward, and the unusual ploy almost paid off as the ball was launched up field causing chaos in the Sporting box. Borja Sainz produced an acrobatic effort that beat Rui Silva but bounced back into the grateful goalkeeper’s hands after hitting the inside of the post. Ten seconds on the clock and Porto almost in the lead!

Sporting settled and Luis Suárez was not far away, rifling an angled effort just over the bar from the edge of the area. Mangas and Trincão tried their luck before play switched to the other end and Luuk de Jong shot straight at Silva after being teed up by the slippery William.

It was a surprisingly open game, as illustrated when a Mora lost the ball in midfield and suddenly Sporting had three men behind the defence bearing down on goal. Suárez opted to play in Pedro Gonçalves, whose shot was brilliantly deflected wide by the rapidly retreating Alberto Costa.

End-to-end

Mora then showed the danger he posed, going close after some silky skills opened up the opportunity for a shot. Froholdt was next to threaten, battling his way past two defenders and shooting into the side-netting.

Pote fired over, Varela tested Silva from distance and Sporting had a penalty appeal turned down as a first half ended which had everything but goals.

Porto may have edged the first half, but Sporting began the second period strongly. Kochorashvili failed to take full advantage of a Diogo Costa mistake, shooting over when gifted the ball, Suárez shot wide at the near post, Hjulmand headed over and Trincão tested the goalkeeper from range.

Francesco Farioli was the first to mix things up, bringing on new signing Pablo Rosario for Mora and Zaidu Sanusi for Francisco Moura. Two minutes later Porto took the lead.

Porto double-whammy

William Gomes played Alberto Costa in behind the Sporting defence, with the right-back placing a low accurate cross into the path of Luuk de Jong who couldn’t miss from point-blank range. Sporting will be disappointed with how easy their defence was cut open.

Borges turned to his bench, bringing on Georgios Vagiannidis and Geovany Quenda for Fresneda and Catamo, but things soon got worse for the hosts.

William Gomes danced past two Sporting defenders on the edge of the box and unleashed a terrific 25-yard curler into the top corner of the net. 64 minutes gone and Porto was winning 2-0.

Game on again

Borges threw on Harder but Porto were looking composed as their bouncing fans celebrated loudly in the stands. But in the 74th minute Sporting got right back into it, Mangas doing well to hook a long cross back into the six-yard area where Nehuen Pérez put the ball into his own net.

Roared on by the majority of the 50,000+ crowd, Sporting pushed more and more men forward, substitute Quenda causing panic whenever he got the ball, which makes Borges’ continued preference for the out-of-sorts Catamo all the more baffling.

In the 86th minute Luis Suárez hit a rocket of a shot towards goal, with Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa reacting superbly to tip it over the bar. That was as close as Sporting would come as Porto earn the bragging rights in the first clássico of the Liga Portugal season.

Sporting 1-2 Porto highlights

Sporting: Rui Silva, Iván Fresneda (Georgios Vagiannidis, 63’), Gonçalo Inácio, Zeno Debast, Ricardo Mangas, Giorgi Kochorashvili (Conrad Harder, 67’), Morten Hjulmand, Geny Catamo (Geovany Quenda, 63’), Francisco Trincão, Pedro Gonçalves (Alisson Santos, 88’), Luis Suárez