I'm going to be honest. I watched this entire game and I still don't fully understand how FC Porto didn't score. Not once. Not in ninety minutes plus nine of stoppage time. Not with Diogo Costa coming up for corners. Not with everything they threw at it. Zero goals. Sporting through on a 1-0 aggregate built on a Luis Suárez penalty from seven weeks ago.
And somehow, weirdly, it felt right. Not because Porto didn't deserve more — they absolutely did — but because this is who this Sporting team is right now. They're not pretty. They're not playing the kind of football that makes you fall in love with the game. But they survive. They grind. They dig trenches and they hold them. And last night at the Dragão, with nearly 50,000 people screaming at them for ninety minutes straight, they did exactly that.
Let me set the scene. The Dragão was electric before kick-off. The Curva had two massive banners — one saying something about stones in the road being used to build their history, the other a mosaic of João Pinto lifting the Taça at the Jamor. The fans knew what was at stake. After the Nottingham Forest disaster knocked Porto out of the Europa League and with the league title almost mathematically guaranteed, this was supposed to be Porto's chance at a domestic double. Win the Taça, cap off Farioli's first season with two trophies, send the fans home happy.
Instead they got one of the most frustrating nights of the entire season.
Farioli changed four players from the Tondela game on Sunday. Thiago Silva came in, Pablo Rosario started, Gabri Veiga got the nod in midfield and William Gomes led the attack. No Zaidu (injured), no Alan Varela or Pepê from the start — both were on the bench. On the Sporting side, Rui Borges made a surprise call by starting Quenda on the left instead of Pedro Gonçalves. First start for Quenda in almost five months apparently. Luís Guilherme, back from a March injury, was among the subs.
And from the first minute you could see what each team's plan was. Porto wanted to press high, win the ball early, and bombard the Sporting box. Sporting wanted to sit deep, stay compact, frustrate, and hit on the counter when the chance came. It's not complicated, it's not revolutionary, but when you're protecting a one-goal lead away from home in a semi-final, you don't need to reinvent football. You just need to not concede.
The first half was tense but honestly kind of uneventful. Porto had the ball most of the time — I'd guess somewhere around 55-60% possession — but they couldn't find the gaps. William Gomes tried to create from the right, Gabri Veiga tried his usual through balls, but Sporting's defensive block was incredibly well-organized. Diomandé was a rock at the back. Eduardo Quaresma read everything. Gonçalo Inácio swept up what was left. It was like trying to break through a wall by throwing tennis balls at it.
Porto's best chance of the first half came when Froholdt let fly from distance and it wasn't far off. But "wasn't far off" doesn't count on the scoreboard and that's all that matters.
The problem for Porto was clear: they had no natural number nine who could hold the ball up, bring others into play, and attack crosses. Samu Aghehowa's been out all season with a cruciate injury. Luuk de Jong is done for the year too. Deniz Gül started but he's more of a mobile forward than a target man. When you're trying to break down a defence that's sitting with five players across the back line, you need someone in the box who can win headers and create chaos. Porto just didn't have that.
Farioli obviously knew this. At half-time and then in the second half, he threw everything at it. Pepê came on. Then Rodrigo Mora. Then Alan Varela. Then Borja Sainz. At one point in the last twenty minutes it felt like Porto were playing a 2-3-5 formation, just bodies everywhere going forward.
And they came close. God, they came close.
Diogo Costa — yes, the goalkeeper — made a stunning save at one point to deny Luís Guilherme, who'd come on for Sporting and had a huge chance on the break. The ball deflected off Kiwior and somehow Diogo Costa clawed it away. If that goes in, it's 0-1 on the night and the tie is effectively dead. That save kept Porto alive.
But then, at about the 87th minute, things went from bad to worse. Alan Varela got himself sent off. I didn't get the clearest view of what happened but it looked like a reckless challenge born out of pure frustration. Red card. Ten men. Nine minutes of added time still to play. And somehow the Dragão got LOUDER. The fans weren't going to let the team die quietly.
Those final nine minutes were chaos. Porto pumped long balls into the box. Bednarek went up for everything. Corners came in one after another. Sporting defended with their lives — every clearance, every block, every header. Ricardo Mangas got booked for a foul on Pepê and the resulting free kick was dangerous but came to nothing.
And then, in the very last play of the game. The absolute last second. Diogo Costa had come up for the corner. The ball bounced around the box and Rui Silva — who'd been decent all night but not spectacular — pulled off THE save. A reaction stop from close range that somehow kept the ball out. Froholdt tried to get on the rebound but a Sporting defender got in the way and the chance was gone.
Whistle.
0-0.
Sporting are in the final.
I sat there for a good minute afterwards just kind of processing it. Porto did everything they could. They pressed, they attacked, they brought on every attacking option they had, their goalkeeper went up for corners, they played with ten men and still pushed. But Sporting held on. With fingernails and teeth and sheer stubbornness, they held on.
For Rui Borges, this is redemption. Or at least the start of it. After the derby loss to Benfica on Sunday — that brutal, soul-crushing defeat with the disallowed goal and the Rafa winner in added time — there was a real concern that this Sporting team might mentally collapse. That the season was over. That the players wouldn't recover. Three days later, they go to the Dragão and put in one of the most disciplined defensive displays I've seen all year. No, it wasn't entertaining. No, it won't make any highlight reels unless you're into compilations of last-ditch blocks and desperate clearances. But it was effective. And after the week they'd had, I think most Sporting fans would take effective over pretty every single time.
The Taça de Portugal might genuinely be Sporting's last shot at a trophy this season. The league title is basically Porto's to lose. Champions League is done. The Taça da Liga is long gone. This is it. And on May 24th, at the Jamor, they'll face either Fafe or Torreense — both from the lower divisions — which, on paper at least, should give them a very real chance at silverware.
For Porto? They've still got the league. And they're almost certainly going to win it. But last night stings. Farioli will know that his team created enough chances across two legs to go through and just couldn't find the net when it mattered. The Taça de Portugal would have been the cherry on top of a great first season. Instead, it'll be a nagging "what if" — especially that last-second Rui Silva save that will probably show up in Sporting highlight videos for years to come.
Sometimes football isn't about who plays better. Sometimes it's about who can suffer more. And last night, nobody suffered quite like Sporting — and nobody benefited more from that suffering.
The Jamor awaits. And honestly? After a week like this, Sporting probably feel like they can survive anything.
