Sporting beat Nacional 2:0 in the Primeira Liga's fifth round at the Estádio José Alvalade on Friday evening. The hosts moved closer to perfection, extending their unbeaten run to five matches while Nacional dropped further down the table. And here's the thing — the result matched what we called before kick-off, a home win at 70% confidence, and the match confirmed the assessment.
Luis Suárez opened the scoring with a penalty in the thirty-second minute, converting after Nacional's defence broke down inside the box. Flávio Gonçalves added a second shortly after the break, slotting home in the forty-ninth minute. By then the visitors had already surrendered any hope of a comeback.
Sporting controlled the tempo from the first whistle, completing 660 passes against Nacional's 318. They created six big chances while the visitors managed none, and their expected goals figure of 3.00 stood in stark contrast to Nacional's 0.08. To be fair, Nacional's goalkeeper made six saves, but those saves came from limited opportunities rather than sustained pressure.
The visitors did not register a single shot off target and managed only two efforts on goal, both from outside the penalty area. Sporting, meanwhile, recorded twelve corners and sent 119 passes into the final third. Nacional's 25 clearances told the story of a side under siege for ninety minutes.
Sporting now sit second with thirteen points from five matches, four victories and one draw. Nacional remain eleventh with four points from one win, one draw and three defeats. The gap between the sides is widening, and by then it was clear this was not a contest that would go either way.
