The bar was high. But it was perfectly within reach and the lions were even very close to surpassing all the records of last season at the end of the first round of the championship. Looking at the numbers, taking a little balance of these first 17 rounds, you could almost say that perfection was lacking in the last… two games.
Nothing is lost, far from it, by the way, but the hard-fought victory against Portimonense (3-2) and the recent defeat against Santa Clara (2-3) tarnished an almost immaculate course so far. Starting with the points. The defeat in the Azores left Sporting with one point less than the previous season. In addition, it is worth remembering that the lions doubled the last year in one of the most comfortable positions ever, much further away from their rivals, as, at the end of the first round, they were leading the table six points from their direct rival, FC Porto, nine SC Braga and … 11 of Benfica.
Quite different from the current scenario, as lions are in second position, in pursuit of dragons.
More worrying, in turn, were the goals conceded in these games against Algarve and Azoreans. Five in total, as many as they had suffered in the first… 15 rounds. The Leonine wall collapsed and Sporting also ended up reaching this point with another goal conceded in relation to the same period of 2020/2021.
Finally, in attack, despite the five goals in these last two games, Sporting has four less than last season. There remains the second round in which the lions, in turn, want the same outcome: winning the title…
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