Manchester City has been nearly flawless in the Champions League this season: It entered Matchday 4 with an undefeated record and zero goals conceded. But after a wild night in Portugal, City fell 4-1 to Sporting Lisbon to mar its run and raise serious questions about its fitness. The defeat is City’s third straight loss in all competitions.
It’s Sporting’s best-ever Champions League performance against a Premier League side, and its second-best performance in the modern era of the competition. It’s a historic upset in terms of club values: Sporting’s roster is worth €443M, while City’s is worth €1.26B.
City’s loss wasn’t just about how it happened. It was about who executed it. Sporting Lisbon pulled off its stunning upset under the watchful eye of future Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim.
Amorim signed a contract with United just a few days ago; He’s set to take over at Old Trafford in mid-November after the next international break. He’ll remain head coach at Sporting Lisbon until then, though, and he’s made no secret about how important it is for him to close out his Sporting career with strong results.
“It is important to win,” he said before the match. “If so it helps me to leave with more joy.”
Amorim’s City upset with Sporting will set off alarm bells across the Premier League. But Amorim is careful about buying into the hype — he knows how carried away fans can get when they see results like this one.
“I don’t think about that,” he said before the match when asked about how United fans might interpret a big victory. “My focus is on winning the match for Sporting. The conclusions are not important for me because they could be erroneous: if we win tomorrow they will think the new Alex Ferguson has arrived. That will be very difficult. It could increase expectations, I don’t know what is better when I start my new adventure.”
While Sporting’s shocking 4-1 victory will certainly raise expectations in Manchester, it’s clear that Amorim isn’t the second coming of Sir Alex Ferguson. He’s something else entirely: a modern, pragmatic, intellectual coach with an eye for detail, and one United would do well to support in the early days of his tenure.
Amorim’s first game with United will be against Ipswich Town on Sunday, Nov. 24. From there, it’s just a few short weeks until United face Manchester City in the Premier League for the first time this season.
“The distance [between us] remains,” Amorim said of Sporting and City before the match. “Let’s see — tomorrow will be a good game to look at all these nuances.”
It certainly was. With a stellar performance that will go down in Sporting’s history books, Amorim proved that the distance isn’t nearly as wide as it used to be. City can be beaten by the right coach — and Amorim appears to be one of them. He may not be the next Sir Alex, but Amorim might be the next best thing.