preview of Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira

By: j | August 16th, 2008

The Portuguese SuperCup (Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira) against Sporting tonight is a perfect way to start an exciting campaign.

Porto manager Jesualdo Ferreira is looking to end Sportings record of success against his squad that seems to be sitting on a nerve. With him noting recently that “Sporting won the Super Cup and the Portuguese Cup against us last season, but we won the title so the trophies were split between us,” it is fairly evident how badly he wants this victory. Standing in his way is the exciting Leões, who equally want to keep the Cup in their possession and based upon what I’ve seen in their pre-season, they are looking very powerful.

Jesualdo Ferreira enters the match with an impressive group of new signings, most notably defenders Cristian Săpunaru, Rolando and Nelson Benítez, Tomás Costa and Freddy Guarín in the midfield and Strikers, Cristián Rodríguez and Hulk. From the early pre-season, for whatever that is worth, Cristian Săpunaru and Tomás Costa have made a substantial impact, with the Romanian defender becoming an immediate fixture in the back-line. Will this off-set the likely loss of Ricardo Quaresma? Doesn’t seem remotely possible so this club will need to adapt very quickly and play better tactically. However it is quite obvious this club has been constructed with the desire to make a deeper run into European competition. The back-line is significantly stronger, so it should be interesting to watch how they react in a match of importance.

Sadly for Football fans and I mean that earnestly because I want to see the best on the pitch, Sporting will be without their sharpshooter Liedson and brilliant midfielder Simon Vukčević.

This will be a superb match, so get ready to sit-back and enjoy. Lineups are posted below and I’ll post a review following the match.

FC Porto
1 Helton, 21 Cristian Săpunaru, 3 Pedro Emanuel, 2 Bruno Alves, 5 Benítez,6 Guarín, 16 Raul Meireles, 8 Lucho, 10 Rodríguez, 9 Lisandro, 19 Farías, 33 Nuno,13 Fucile,14 Rolando, 25 Fernando MD,20 Tomás Costa, 23 Candeias, 12 Hulk AV

Sporting
1 Rui Patrício, 12 Caneira, 13 Tonel, 4 Polga, 18 Grimi LE, 24 Miguel Veloso, 26 Rochemback, 7 Izmailov, 28 João Moutinho, 20 Yanncik Djaló, 11 Derlei, 16 | Tiago GR, 78 Abel LD, 6 Adrein,25 Pereirinha,30 Romagnoli, 22 Tiuí AV, 23 Postiga AV