Sporting travel to Feirense on Sunday evening with their eyes firmly set on clocking up a tenth straight victory.
The new-found optimism at the Lisbon club reached a crescendo on Monday evening when a devastating display of attacking football tore Gil Vicente to shreds in a 6-1 victory.
The Lions now face the other newly promoted side to the Liga ZON Sagres, and anything other than a Sporting win will be a major surprise.
As well as Sporting’s hot run of form, Feirense have fallen on hard times after a decent start to the season. Quim Machado’s team have lost four and drawn one of their last five matches.
“We have to be prepared for a team that will make life difficult for us. We expect the same Feirense team that gave tough games to FC Porto (goalless draw) and Benfica (narrow defeat),” said Domingos. “After winning nine successive games we’ll look to win a 10th. We realise three points are at stake which are important for our objective.”
Sporting are again stretched as regards their options at centre-back. Alberto Rodriguez is still injured, and Anderson Polga is also ruled out after picking up a thigh strain in training. The Lions therefore only have two fit centre-backs, Daniel Carriço and Oguchi Onyewu, the American himself only just coming back after a recent injury.
There was better news at the other end of the pitch as winger Jeffren is included in the squad after a long absence. The ex Barcelona player last played on 28 August, when he scored against Maritimo but injured himself in doing so.
For Feirense striker Rabiola is back after missing the last two games.
Kick-off on Sunday evening at 8.15pm local time.
The Lions now face the other newly promoted side to the Liga ZON Sagres, and anything other than a Sporting win will be a major surprise.
As well as Sporting’s hot run of form, Feirense have fallen on hard times after a decent start to the season. Quim Machado’s team have lost four and drawn one of their last five matches.
“We have to be prepared for a team that will make life difficult for us. We expect the same Feirense team that gave tough games to FC Porto (goalless draw) and Benfica (narrow defeat),” said Domingos. “After winning nine successive games we’ll look to win a 10th. We realise three points are at stake which are important for our objective.”
Sporting are again stretched as regards their options at centre-back. Alberto Rodriguez is still injured, and Anderson Polga is also ruled out after picking up a thigh strain in training. The Lions therefore only have two fit centre-backs, Daniel Carriço and Oguchi Onyewu, the American himself only just coming back after a recent injury.
There was better news at the other end of the pitch as winger Jeffren is included in the squad after a long absence. The ex Barcelona player last played on 28 August, when he scored against Maritimo but injured himself in doing so.
For Feirense striker Rabiola is back after missing the last two games.
Kick-off on Sunday evening at 8.15pm local time.
