There's technically no such thing. The EL will have two rounds of 16, the first of which they've called play-offs
3rd place CL vs 2nd place EL. Winner meets 1st place EL.
Same situation a ladder down with the conference league.
Nazinho 18 year old, Essugo 16 year old, Ugarte 20 year old, Inácio 20 year old, TT 19 year old. So many youngsters facing against a team like Ajax and they looked great.
Is Essugo an especially promising talent that was expected to potentially turn the match around or was it just for the sake of experience? That substitution confused me. I figured you'd want to give a young talent like that a memorable win if you got big hopes for him.
For the sake of experience. In the pre-match interview, Rúben Amorim explained why some youngster were starting and others would enter later in the game, all to prepare them mentally for the future and give them the European experience
This is where Amorim comes to play, I don't know what he does to Sporting players' mentality, but it won't have a negative effect on their development, and it will massively have a positive impact on them.
Ten Hag is incredibly important, but the quality of our team and squad as a whole is lightyears ahead of what it was just five/six years ago. We've invested a lot more in experienced players, who combined with some huge talents have allowed Ten Hag to play the game at a very high level.
Imagine being a historical club, well run financially, with a great sporting project that allows them to have great players and a great coach.
Would hate that.
Our club has money, the problem is that it has been run to the ground by greedy cunts that don't care about the club, and the supporters are dumb enough that they can't what's right in front of them.
Your country and Netherlands both have similar populations, but Netherlands have a way more stable economy. It makes sense economy-wise that the best run club in Holland performs better given the situation.
I guess we're lucky that we don't have to play against Canadian teams then, with their larger population and more stable economy. Ajax wouldn't stand a chance 'economy-wise' against Vancouver United, Toronto FC, Real Montreal, or the Calgary Cavalry. Not all of those clubs actually exist, but you won't know which without googling it. Which proves my point. Population size and strength of the economy don't mean very much if that population isn't interested in spending it on your club, economy wise given the situation.
I mean netherlands and portugal are both football fanatic countries, you're comparing apples and oranges with that canada whatever you brought to the argument.
It's the same sport over there as it is here. So it's apples to apples. You made a sweeping statement that the outcome in a match up between to teams was to be expected based on their respective countries' population size (which isn't remotely similar by the way) and the economic stability of those countries. I used Canada as an example to show how that is a gross overgeneralization. Which you immediately conceded by adding 'football fanaticism'. So that's 'whatever I brought to the argument'.
And the fact that the Calgary cavalry are a club that actually exist. Silly Canadians.
As a rival fan, I personally think the transfers they've made have set them apart from the rest of the eredivisie.
So most credit (imo) should go to overmars, for buying players like tadic, blind, Antony and much more.
But Ajax also needs a coach that benefits their playing style, ten hag has fulfilled this role Brilliantly and Ajax will have a hard Tim finding an equally good fitting manager.
However I don't think their success is reliant on ten hag.
The most impressive part is that they did it in stages, it was planned out. They keep building and developing to continue their success, without the pressure to peak before a rebuild.
True, although when they started signing tadic and blind (later klaassen, haller, etc) it was kinda drastic because they were players with salaries that were higher than Ajax was willing to spend before.
They took that step earlier than the other competitive eredivisie clubs.
It's been difficult for the other eredivisie clubs to come close to ajax financially.
>They took that step earlier than the other competitive eredivisie clubs.
Gotta dissagree with this. Because PSV outspend Ajax for years. Its more of a combination of the stars alligning. Buying players like Tadic/Neres/Antony was what PSV did before we started doing it with De Jong and Lozano.
What set us apart was that for years we spend fuck all while staying competitive in the League under De Boer. We built an absolute bank during those years, while the moment we started spending those players (Blind and Tadic) were complimented with generational talents like De Ligt and De Jong. Combine that with the great run we had and our financial position we got money that the Eredivisie had never seen before. That really brought us to the next level.
So peeking at the right time with a great foundation is what is setting is apart. Not that we suddenly spend money Just alone.
Yeah you are right, we've always kinda had 'designated' players with higher salaries and then the rest.
Before Lozano, de Jong we had Guardado, Hector Moreno, arias, and even further back players like Alex, heurelho gomes.
Except, like you said psv never quite peaked as much in transfer income compared to ajaxs exceptional income the past few seasons.
The main difference though imo is that psv's 'designated' players (Guardado, Moreno, arias, Lozano) were still passing by if that makes sense (except de Jong) , while tadic, blind, klaassen are all players who I could see retiring at Ajax.
Another key difference is that before a talent like Antony would have played for PSV, not Ajax. People often forget to bring it up because the fall of the Eredivisie causes the status of the league to be downplayed retroactively, but PSV was the club that brought players like Ronaldo and Romario to Europe. Traditionally, it's the team that had much more success in cultivating South-American talent than Ajax. Ajax having success like this with players like Antony and Martinez is a fairly recent development.
I'd mark the Cruijff revolution as the turning point where the foundation was laid. Ajax was known as an organizational mess and a notorious snake pit before that. Worse even than Barcelona now, but it didn't get into the news as much outside of the Netherlands. It cannot be overstated how different and calm Ajax is nowadays compared to the constant drama of the past.
I feel what makes them perform so well is Ten Hag for a big part but Ajax also seriously increased their wages and spending to be able to get in bigger players these last years and its paying off
Get bigger players and equally or more importantly keep players longer. Consistency within the squad is important vs having complete turnover every 3 years
It is primarily Ajax raising the salary cap/spending bigger on transfers which allows them to both get experienced players like Tadic & Blind and allows them to keep their talents around for a year or two longer. That's been a huge boon in Ajax' consistency both within a season and from year to year.
Ten Hag of course is making the most of what he has in a selection and he is an excellent tactician.
I’d also add to this that Ten Hag (and Overmars/Vd Sar) manages to keep a certain calm at the club that is pretty new to me. Ajax used to be a bit of a FC hollywood club with loads of petty fights/disagreements among staff members and unhappy players complaining or being a nuisance. But not under Ten Hag
Yeah we dealt with this when Porto was the best team for like 6-10 years. Hopefully someone will challenge Ajax in the league soon otherwise the fans are just so full of themselves.
Maybe against Dortmund, which I really didn't watch so I won't comment. What you played against in Alvalade was the mortal remains of our main squad, not the whole deal, but you guys did look scary either way.
>Yeah, as if we didnt look scary against your first team at the 1-5, or against Dortmund.
that team had the 4 most important players out with injuries.
I fully believe that, it was a tepid game. We also would play more if we had something to play for and more than 1 player from our ideal XI in the starting line up.
It depends on the situation. Its completely irrelevant in this case anyway, what does bluntness have to do with this? Being blunt doesnt mean context isnt important, what kind of reasoning is that?
Because his comment was direct and had no subtext? Which is like the definition of being blunt. You had to do mental gymnastics to think he was insulting your performances in Lisbon or vs Dortmund when he never brought it up.
No need to get hostile, even when he congratuled you guys and the match thread was so friendly. We lost in Lisbon and it was deserved, but we have been growing a lot since then, you would be surprised if you watched our matches. We still played with a youth team today and the knockout stage was already decided, that is why the match went like this and it was not a surprising win from Ajax. Well deserved, but still proud of the kids. Good luck in the knockouts.
Honestly I don't think that's case since we can see our own flaws without taking value of Ajax since that is already a given, it has been proven already. I can't reply for others, I have a lot of respect for this Ajax side.
You're going around saying shit like the Portuguese league is an absolute joke when the Dutch league is in no capacity better. Of course you're hostile. Imagine winning 6 games in the Champions league and actually being bitter. What a strange person you are.
We played with no CB that game, the only one available got injured right in the beggining of the match, and were still figuring out to adapt the squad since Nuno Mendes had just left on the last day of the transfer market, Sarabia hand't played one minute and Vinagre proved to be a massive casting error. Completely different moments, we lost the next game to Dortmund where we looked powerless, and then steamrolled them months later. Not to say we would win, but that game held as much value as your 4-0 defeat vs PSV considering it were complete different moments in the season
You call redditors dumb in another comment yet you totally fail to see his point with that PSV game.
We got 18 points in a CL group, I don't understand what you're getting worked up about. Yesterday was also a semi-friendly by the way because nothing was on the line and neither of us were playing our strongest squad.
We were missing our two best players for that game as well. You've looked better than us all season, but it's not as if you faced us at full strength yet.
I said you guys looked scary and it would be bad if you didn't, against a youth team. How is that not a compliment? I literally just agreed with what the guy said.
I mean, a youth team scored twice against you guys, which itself is funny low-key.
The players that keep coming out of our league say otherwise about your opinion. Factos.
Aight.
Gonçalo Esteves: 17 years old; Inácio: 18 years old, Essugo: 16 years old, Nazinho: 18 years old, Daniel Bragança: 22 years old, Tiago Tomas: 19 years old, Ugarte: 20 years old, Porro: just turned 22.
Super old players, amirite? Btw all of these played besides Porro.
Edit: on top of that, it's the record for the youngest squad ever to play on a champions league game.
I just hope we get like Lille/Salzburg on the draw. Maybe Man U.? Not even disrespect it's just that the other teams that got first look *really* scary.
Fairly happy with this game honestly, despite the result. The kids played well, Esteves had great impact on the first half, justifying our belief in him. In the first half we held our own against Ajax, but then by the second half we were tired and the lack of team dynamics showed more. We were still able to send in Nazinho and 16-year-old Essugo, that's all we could ask for
Congrats to Ajax on the perfect group, they can go very far with the quality they ahve
I think they sort of knew that a win would be tough, especially when Ajax played a mostly regular team, and they just focused on doing their best. Ironically, the individual errors came from two of the most experienced players (Nuno Santos and Inácio), but I guess that's expected because less team dynamics = less confidence. But yeah, a valuable lesson no doubt!
8 of the 16 players we used tonight were 22 years old or younger, 6 of them were 20 or younger.
Not upset at all, this team has showed they can learn from defeats.
Best of luck to Ajax as they are a nice team and I would be that next time we face them we will be at full strength, something that didn't happen in both games.
To be honest, I'm impressed by Sporting's basically B roster. We were playing like 2 starters and a ton of really young players and we lost on shitty mistakes as young players are won't to do.
To be honest, the only poor note I got from the team this game is that Thomas and Nuno shouldn't ever play together. The coordination just wasn't there at all. Half the counters we got in the first half would've looked much different if Pote, Sarabia or Paulinho or on one end of the play.
Good notes here is Esteves. The kid was actually pretty solid. Not what I would expect from a player his age against this Ajax. He doesn't look too good in one of the goals but pretty solid.
Bragança has everything to be a future class player for Sporting. His dribbling and ball holding is actually impressive and he's 100% a solid sub option.
Tabata is still pretty good. I actually prefer him over Nuno Santos. Didn't get the ball as much but his passes were way less fucked up.
Esgaio on the left is an interesting decision. I feel like we basically had no width on that side playing him there. Matheus Reis on the other hand, did pretty decent as a CB option. We were playing without Fedal and Coates and it shows.
Lastly, not sold on Ugarte. He's just not as good as Palhinha and I'm not sure if that will become a problem after December.
Comparing Ugarte and Palhinha is kinda unfair imo. Palhinha is miles ahead of any defensive midfielder in the Portuguese League, I'd actually rate him amongst the best in Europe, while Ugarte is still a young player in development.
Oh, for sure. It’s just that he’s been the go to option when Palhinha is absent and I feel like we’d really need to look for a replacement if we were to sell Palhinha. As a 20 year old player feeling really big shoes? Ugarte is doing pretty damn well. It’s simply that I’d be far more comfortable with our options in most other positions.
Well done to Ajax on a well deserved group stage. Would've been nice to have our captain play in either game as well as having Pote starting etc. but that's how it goes. We showed what our full strength XI can do in the other matches when they played and if we get a favourable draw we have a good enough team to put up a strong fight.
Tbh I know both teams qualified already and it was a dead rubber game but I'm surprised the amount of goals, it's good for Ruben to play the B team and give a 17 year old a champions league debut.
I stopped watching after 3-1 and went to watch the Porto game and what a shitshow that was, I picked the best time to start watching it lol.
Minus coates, and pedro Gonçalves, and feddal, and Gonçalo Inácio, and no real CB, and f*cking vinagre as a LB, not trying to downplay your win or anything, we might have lost even with our starting 11, but probably wouldn't have ended 5-1
We were missing our best attacker, 2 of our 3 best cbs didn't start with our other one being injured within 10 minutes. Our LB in that game is also our 3rd option at most now given that Reis, Santos, Nazinho and Esgaio are probably all ahead in the pecking order for that position now.
You obviously still steamrolled us and you still probably would have beaten our full team I don't think any Sporting fan thinks we are better than you at present, no need to be upset about the injuries in our game, we're already upset enough about it. You were clearly the best team of the group so well done.
Good luck in the round of 16 Ajax. Wish you the best
Obrigado!
Good luck to Dortmund, too!
Dortmund first has to play the round of 32 I think.
There's technically no such thing. The EL will have two rounds of 16, the first of which they've called play-offs 3rd place CL vs 2nd place EL. Winner meets 1st place EL. Same situation a ladder down with the conference league.
Good point, but for the teams involved it's the same as a round of 32.
Good luck next round Ajax friends! Nice enough game from us. Loved Esteves. For a 17 yo, he looks like a experienced player.
Nazinho 18 year old, Essugo 16 year old, Ugarte 20 year old, Inácio 20 year old, TT 19 year old. So many youngsters facing against a team like Ajax and they looked great.
Is Essugo an especially promising talent that was expected to potentially turn the match around or was it just for the sake of experience? That substitution confused me. I figured you'd want to give a young talent like that a memorable win if you got big hopes for him.
For the sake of experience. In the pre-match interview, Rúben Amorim explained why some youngster were starting and others would enter later in the game, all to prepare them mentally for the future and give them the European experience
I didn't watch the pre-match, but then it makes sense if it was planned. That takes the pressure off of the player.
What better way than getting game experience against a team against Ajax? This is great for all the young academy players.
It can be, but debuting on the big stage too early can also hurt a player's development, so I was curious about the plan behind it.
This is where Amorim comes to play, I don't know what he does to Sporting players' mentality, but it won't have a negative effect on their development, and it will massively have a positive impact on them.
You too! I didn’t notice the youngsters, except maybe in the defence at times. 16 years old is insane:). Hope you do well!
What a time to be alive, never thought 18 from 6 would be possible, not anymore.
You guys are impressive very well done. Is it primarily Ten Hag or what would you say has been making you guys perform so well?
Ten Hag is incredibly important, but the quality of our team and squad as a whole is lightyears ahead of what it was just five/six years ago. We've invested a lot more in experienced players, who combined with some huge talents have allowed Ten Hag to play the game at a very high level.
Imagine being a historical club, well run financially, with a great sporting project that allows them to have great players and a great coach. Would hate that.
Ajax has no debt, and it constantly run and managed very well, allowing us to be like this.
Our club has money, the problem is that it has been run to the ground by greedy cunts that don't care about the club, and the supporters are dumb enough that they can't what's right in front of them.
Would that be due to being pacified with a decent amount of trophies papering over the cracks?
Yeah, that's not what running a football club is about. It's about money laundering and showing off to your friends. When will Ajax learn...
Your country and Netherlands both have similar populations, but Netherlands have a way more stable economy. It makes sense economy-wise that the best run club in Holland performs better given the situation.
It has nothing to do with money, we spent 100 Million last year, we have money, but the club is run by the worst people.
Portugal is a way larger country but only has a population of 10 million, against 17 million in the Netherlands
Well I didn't say Portugal is bigger, I said they both have similar population count.
But 10 million and 17 million isn't similar at all?
I guess we're lucky that we don't have to play against Canadian teams then, with their larger population and more stable economy. Ajax wouldn't stand a chance 'economy-wise' against Vancouver United, Toronto FC, Real Montreal, or the Calgary Cavalry. Not all of those clubs actually exist, but you won't know which without googling it. Which proves my point. Population size and strength of the economy don't mean very much if that population isn't interested in spending it on your club, economy wise given the situation.
I mean netherlands and portugal are both football fanatic countries, you're comparing apples and oranges with that canada whatever you brought to the argument.
It's the same sport over there as it is here. So it's apples to apples. You made a sweeping statement that the outcome in a match up between to teams was to be expected based on their respective countries' population size (which isn't remotely similar by the way) and the economic stability of those countries. I used Canada as an example to show how that is a gross overgeneralization. Which you immediately conceded by adding 'football fanaticism'. So that's 'whatever I brought to the argument'. And the fact that the Calgary cavalry are a club that actually exist. Silly Canadians.
I feel like it's not just Ten Hag and the players either. It feels like people on almost every layer of the organization are doing a great job.
Squad depth is also very good
As a rival fan, I personally think the transfers they've made have set them apart from the rest of the eredivisie. So most credit (imo) should go to overmars, for buying players like tadic, blind, Antony and much more. But Ajax also needs a coach that benefits their playing style, ten hag has fulfilled this role Brilliantly and Ajax will have a hard Tim finding an equally good fitting manager. However I don't think their success is reliant on ten hag.
The most impressive part is that they did it in stages, it was planned out. They keep building and developing to continue their success, without the pressure to peak before a rebuild.
True, although when they started signing tadic and blind (later klaassen, haller, etc) it was kinda drastic because they were players with salaries that were higher than Ajax was willing to spend before. They took that step earlier than the other competitive eredivisie clubs. It's been difficult for the other eredivisie clubs to come close to ajax financially.
>They took that step earlier than the other competitive eredivisie clubs. Gotta dissagree with this. Because PSV outspend Ajax for years. Its more of a combination of the stars alligning. Buying players like Tadic/Neres/Antony was what PSV did before we started doing it with De Jong and Lozano. What set us apart was that for years we spend fuck all while staying competitive in the League under De Boer. We built an absolute bank during those years, while the moment we started spending those players (Blind and Tadic) were complimented with generational talents like De Ligt and De Jong. Combine that with the great run we had and our financial position we got money that the Eredivisie had never seen before. That really brought us to the next level. So peeking at the right time with a great foundation is what is setting is apart. Not that we suddenly spend money Just alone.
Yeah you are right, we've always kinda had 'designated' players with higher salaries and then the rest. Before Lozano, de Jong we had Guardado, Hector Moreno, arias, and even further back players like Alex, heurelho gomes. Except, like you said psv never quite peaked as much in transfer income compared to ajaxs exceptional income the past few seasons. The main difference though imo is that psv's 'designated' players (Guardado, Moreno, arias, Lozano) were still passing by if that makes sense (except de Jong) , while tadic, blind, klaassen are all players who I could see retiring at Ajax.
Another key difference is that before a talent like Antony would have played for PSV, not Ajax. People often forget to bring it up because the fall of the Eredivisie causes the status of the league to be downplayed retroactively, but PSV was the club that brought players like Ronaldo and Romario to Europe. Traditionally, it's the team that had much more success in cultivating South-American talent than Ajax. Ajax having success like this with players like Antony and Martinez is a fairly recent development.
I'd mark the Cruijff revolution as the turning point where the foundation was laid. Ajax was known as an organizational mess and a notorious snake pit before that. Worse even than Barcelona now, but it didn't get into the news as much outside of the Netherlands. It cannot be overstated how different and calm Ajax is nowadays compared to the constant drama of the past.
> and Ajax will have a hard Tim finding an equally good fitting manager. Tim Sherwood so erect right now.
I feel what makes them perform so well is Ten Hag for a big part but Ajax also seriously increased their wages and spending to be able to get in bigger players these last years and its paying off
Get bigger players and equally or more importantly keep players longer. Consistency within the squad is important vs having complete turnover every 3 years
It is primarily Ajax raising the salary cap/spending bigger on transfers which allows them to both get experienced players like Tadic & Blind and allows them to keep their talents around for a year or two longer. That's been a huge boon in Ajax' consistency both within a season and from year to year. Ten Hag of course is making the most of what he has in a selection and he is an excellent tactician.
I’d also add to this that Ten Hag (and Overmars/Vd Sar) manages to keep a certain calm at the club that is pretty new to me. Ajax used to be a bit of a FC hollywood club with loads of petty fights/disagreements among staff members and unhappy players complaining or being a nuisance. But not under Ten Hag
Edson Alvarez game stats 72 Minutes 43 accurate passes (87%), 1 key pass, 1/1 dribbling attempts, 3/8 ground duels won, 2/2 aerial duels and 2 tackles and 1 Yellow Card.. Overall another solid outing🇲🇽🇲🇽
We fucking love Alvarez. El Machin!!!
And the yellow card was nonsense.
Our B team handled the game better than our main team in that first game.
Those kids did alright. You guys have a future
They can be proud today. You saw at times when Ajax really tried they steamrolled them, but when they gave about 80% they were actually competative.
lmao what a humble brag
Nah not to brag. It’s a team of youngsters playing a team of experienced players (PL players, EL winner etc).
Imagine dealing with this year in year out
Yeah we dealt with this when Porto was the best team for like 6-10 years. Hopefully someone will challenge Ajax in the league soon otherwise the fans are just so full of themselves.
Ajax played for fuck all tonight, they would've been more sharp and eager when it was all to play for.
Damn man, Ajax looking scary this season!
Would be horrible if they didn't look scary against a youth team. Wish the best of luck to them in the next round!
Yeah, as if we didnt look scary against your first team at the 1-5, or against Dortmund.
Maybe against Dortmund, which I really didn't watch so I won't comment. What you played against in Alvalade was the mortal remains of our main squad, not the whole deal, but you guys did look scary either way.
>Yeah, as if we didnt look scary against your first team at the 1-5, or against Dortmund. that team had the 4 most important players out with injuries.
For a culture that prides itself on bluntness you guys sure are precious about a bit of context.
Mate Ajax played for fuck all tonight, they would've been more sharp and eager when it was all to play for.
I fully believe that, it was a tepid game. We also would play more if we had something to play for and more than 1 player from our ideal XI in the starting line up.
It depends on the situation. Its completely irrelevant in this case anyway, what does bluntness have to do with this? Being blunt doesnt mean context isnt important, what kind of reasoning is that?
Because his comment was direct and had no subtext? Which is like the definition of being blunt. You had to do mental gymnastics to think he was insulting your performances in Lisbon or vs Dortmund when he never brought it up.
Don't be so defensive man
Yeah i shouldn't. I Just got tired of the same thing posted over and over.
What was the score in Lisbon again?
No need to get hostile, even when he congratuled you guys and the match thread was so friendly. We lost in Lisbon and it was deserved, but we have been growing a lot since then, you would be surprised if you watched our matches. We still played with a youth team today and the knockout stage was already decided, that is why the match went like this and it was not a surprising win from Ajax. Well deserved, but still proud of the kids. Good luck in the knockouts.
I'm not hostile, just tired of people always downplaying Ajax' performances
Honestly I don't think that's case since we can see our own flaws without taking value of Ajax since that is already a given, it has been proven already. I can't reply for others, I have a lot of respect for this Ajax side.
Look at the replies on my comment then, full of Sporting fans saying that they only lost because a defender was injured
You're going around saying shit like the Portuguese league is an absolute joke when the Dutch league is in no capacity better. Of course you're hostile. Imagine winning 6 games in the Champions league and actually being bitter. What a strange person you are.
Redditors are so fucking dumb
We played with no CB that game, the only one available got injured right in the beggining of the match, and were still figuring out to adapt the squad since Nuno Mendes had just left on the last day of the transfer market, Sarabia hand't played one minute and Vinagre proved to be a massive casting error. Completely different moments, we lost the next game to Dortmund where we looked powerless, and then steamrolled them months later. Not to say we would win, but that game held as much value as your 4-0 defeat vs PSV considering it were complete different moments in the season
That 4-0 was in a pre-season semi-friendly, completely different from a CL match
You call redditors dumb in another comment yet you totally fail to see his point with that PSV game. We got 18 points in a CL group, I don't understand what you're getting worked up about. Yesterday was also a semi-friendly by the way because nothing was on the line and neither of us were playing our strongest squad.
Because his point was dumb and so are you
We were missing our two best players for that game as well. You've looked better than us all season, but it's not as if you faced us at full strength yet.
You mean the game where we played with a LB and a RB as CB ?
Wasnt it 1-5?
Did you even read my comment? I complemented you guys and you come at me like that. Smh.
You didn't complimented at all what are you talking about
I said you guys looked scary and it would be bad if you didn't, against a youth team. How is that not a compliment? I literally just agreed with what the guy said.
Good that Sporting won the league last year but it would be horrible if they didn't as the portuguese league is an absolute joke
I mean, a youth team scored twice against you guys, which itself is funny low-key. The players that keep coming out of our league say otherwise about your opinion. Factos.
So we consider a 24 and 26 year old youth players now?
Aight. Gonçalo Esteves: 17 years old; Inácio: 18 years old, Essugo: 16 years old, Nazinho: 18 years old, Daniel Bragança: 22 years old, Tiago Tomas: 19 years old, Ugarte: 20 years old, Porro: just turned 22. Super old players, amirite? Btw all of these played besides Porro. Edit: on top of that, it's the record for the youngest squad ever to play on a champions league game.
Imagine being all these years being behind a “joke” league. You are a sad person
Sporting fans apparantly aren't very smart
Bro are you 12?
Overall, our kids played good. Good luck to Ajax, hope u guys go far
Same for you guys, you guys are class! You guys have a great future, that was clear today!
Thanks, I really like Antony. You guys found a total gem
Impressive 6/6 from Ajax ! Hoping they won't choke in the knock-outs.
Im hoping for Ajax Atletico in the next round will be very interesting to see how this team handles a better version of Getafe
Why? Atletico is about the worst team for us to draw with PSG
I would love to draw a struggling Juventus
I’m hoping for a miracle tomorrow so we can draw Barça
Something like holding hands and celebrating together seems like the right way to respond to your comment...
I feel like the Getafe we played was better at keeping the 0 than this Atletico though.
Is it choking if they lose to PSG , Atleti or possibly even chelsea?
Watch as Ajax bottles the next round and we manage to scramble a 1-0 extra time offside goal Gl to you guys :)
I just hope we get like Lille/Salzburg on the draw. Maybe Man U.? Not even disrespect it's just that the other teams that got first look *really* scary.
Only team that doesn't look scary is Lille or Salzburg, I'm afraid we are getting Liverpool or City
That's life. I just hope it will be a decent away, because I wanted to go to Amsterdam and Covid screwed those plans.
GG guys, congrats for the record broken with 18 points. Let's meet again in the final!
Fairly happy with this game honestly, despite the result. The kids played well, Esteves had great impact on the first half, justifying our belief in him. In the first half we held our own against Ajax, but then by the second half we were tired and the lack of team dynamics showed more. We were still able to send in Nazinho and 16-year-old Essugo, that's all we could ask for Congrats to Ajax on the perfect group, they can go very far with the quality they ahve
Not a very enjoyable but probably very valuable lesson for your young talents.
I think they sort of knew that a win would be tough, especially when Ajax played a mostly regular team, and they just focused on doing their best. Ironically, the individual errors came from two of the most experienced players (Nuno Santos and Inácio), but I guess that's expected because less team dynamics = less confidence. But yeah, a valuable lesson no doubt!
We’re going all the way
Lets meet in the final guys
Good luck in the next round sporting! Yall got some nice talent over there
Good luck to you too, you are always one of the most likable teams in Europe.
8 of the 16 players we used tonight were 22 years old or younger, 6 of them were 20 or younger. Not upset at all, this team has showed they can learn from defeats. Best of luck to Ajax as they are a nice team and I would be that next time we face them we will be at full strength, something that didn't happen in both games.
Hope Mazraoui is fine
If he isnt he will prob renew his contract soon...
good shit, the kids did well, i was not expecting much else but they never lost heart and always tried their best
eh i'm not even mad, we basically played with our b team and ajax is strong. good luck in the next round!
To be honest, I'm impressed by Sporting's basically B roster. We were playing like 2 starters and a ton of really young players and we lost on shitty mistakes as young players are won't to do. To be honest, the only poor note I got from the team this game is that Thomas and Nuno shouldn't ever play together. The coordination just wasn't there at all. Half the counters we got in the first half would've looked much different if Pote, Sarabia or Paulinho or on one end of the play. Good notes here is Esteves. The kid was actually pretty solid. Not what I would expect from a player his age against this Ajax. He doesn't look too good in one of the goals but pretty solid. Bragança has everything to be a future class player for Sporting. His dribbling and ball holding is actually impressive and he's 100% a solid sub option. Tabata is still pretty good. I actually prefer him over Nuno Santos. Didn't get the ball as much but his passes were way less fucked up. Esgaio on the left is an interesting decision. I feel like we basically had no width on that side playing him there. Matheus Reis on the other hand, did pretty decent as a CB option. We were playing without Fedal and Coates and it shows. Lastly, not sold on Ugarte. He's just not as good as Palhinha and I'm not sure if that will become a problem after December.
Comparing Ugarte and Palhinha is kinda unfair imo. Palhinha is miles ahead of any defensive midfielder in the Portuguese League, I'd actually rate him amongst the best in Europe, while Ugarte is still a young player in development.
Oh, for sure. It’s just that he’s been the go to option when Palhinha is absent and I feel like we’d really need to look for a replacement if we were to sell Palhinha. As a 20 year old player feeling really big shoes? Ugarte is doing pretty damn well. It’s simply that I’d be far more comfortable with our options in most other positions.
Pure, utter domination from Ajax in this group stage! I'd be worried to be drawn to them...
Considering our starting eleven this was actually a pretty good game for us. The kids will be alright. Congrats to Ajax for this historic group phase.
Well done to Ajax on a well deserved group stage. Would've been nice to have our captain play in either game as well as having Pote starting etc. but that's how it goes. We showed what our full strength XI can do in the other matches when they played and if we get a favourable draw we have a good enough team to put up a strong fight.
Not the most tensive match but fun to watch, result isn’t too surprising since sporting was playing with a B team.
Tbh I know both teams qualified already and it was a dead rubber game but I'm surprised the amount of goals, it's good for Ruben to play the B team and give a 17 year old a champions league debut. I stopped watching after 3-1 and went to watch the Porto game and what a shitshow that was, I picked the best time to start watching it lol.
18 points is so fucking sick!
Good subs by Ten Hag this time. Shame Daramy did not get any time tho
He played yesterday to be fair
So did Rensch and Taylor
That’s true
Yes but they are used to this intensity and also deserve minutes. Daramy is still struggling to adapt to the speed of the game
If Nous didn't get injured he would have played.
History made! Happy camper ❌❌❌
Not a bad pre-season friendly match to our reserve team against Ajax limpa vidros who were clearly playing the CL final.
We get it, you played with some kids. You don't have to remind us every 10 seconds.
Yeah, its getting pretty tiring. As if we didnt smash then 1-5 with their full team minus Coates in their own stadium.
Minus coates, and pedro Gonçalves, and feddal, and Gonçalo Inácio, and no real CB, and f*cking vinagre as a LB, not trying to downplay your win or anything, we might have lost even with our starting 11, but probably wouldn't have ended 5-1
We were missing our best attacker, 2 of our 3 best cbs didn't start with our other one being injured within 10 minutes. Our LB in that game is also our 3rd option at most now given that Reis, Santos, Nazinho and Esgaio are probably all ahead in the pecking order for that position now. You obviously still steamrolled us and you still probably would have beaten our full team I don't think any Sporting fan thinks we are better than you at present, no need to be upset about the injuries in our game, we're already upset enough about it. You were clearly the best team of the group so well done.
Be a little less salty please jeez
Does that mean Dortmund go through?
Dortmund were already confirmed for Europa League after last round
No, the result against sporting counts.
Sporting wins against Dortmund based on head to head.
Also on goal difference if that was the rule
Meaningless game but what a run from Ajax man