Sporting 4 - 1 Man City - Astronconnect

Sporting's new Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim made an impressive second-half comeback to beat Premier League champions Manchester City 4-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Viktor Gyokeres.

On a night where the home team and their outgoing head coach were under a lot of pressure before the game, City went home with many questions as they suffered a third defeat in a row following defeats at Tottenham and Bournemouth.

Sporting move into second place in the Champions League table behind Liverpool as they remain unbeaten since the start of the season, while City fall to sixth after their first defeat in the competition.

Amorim, who takes charge of United after this week, endured a torrid first half in his final home game, with Phil Foden capitalizing on a nervous start from the hosts to fire City into the lead within five minutes of beating Hidemasa Morita.

Sporting could have come into the game three goals down at the break but pulled one back late in the half through Gyokeres, who took advantage of a disappointing missed chance to get past Ederson after being played through by 17-year-old full-back Geovany Quenda.

The hosts were a different team again, seemingly inspired by their outgoing head coach's half-time break, as they took the lead 20 seconds after the restart through Maximiliano Araujo, before Gyokeres extended the lead with a penalty four minutes later.

City could not cope with the direct dribbling of Pedro Goncalves, the creator of Sporting's second goal, or Trincao, who was fouled on Josko Gvardiol's penalty, as the former Wolves duo wreaked havoc in the defense of the weakened Premier League team caused.

Erling Haaland, on a quiet night for the striker, had the perfect opportunity to give City a lifeline with 20 minutes left after Ousmane Diomande caught the ball following a foul on Bernardo Silva, but the striker hit the crossbar as his effort went by in a flash.

Sporting had to hold on after their burst of inspiration at the start of the second half, but extended their unlikely lead from the penalty spot, with Gyokeres completing his hat-trick after Matheus Nunes had fouled substitute Geny Catamo.

City fans were headed for the exits early as Amorim claimed his first win over Pep Guardiola, just over a month before his first Manchester derby, live on Sky Sportson December 15th.

Pep: We can't argue about the result

Man City coach Pep Guardiola:

“It's hard to explain. We started really well, we had a very good first half. In football you have to score goals. If you lose 4-1, you have to congratulate Sporting and learn from it. We can't argue – they won.” They created good transition opportunities, especially with two of their goals.

“Kudos to Sporting, we weren't determined enough (in the first half) and after that we conceded a second goal and we have to do better. If you give away easy balls, the transitions are there for them (the opponent).” “

Silva: Man City “in a dark place”

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva:

“It's disappointing because we're in a bit of a dark place at the moment. Everything seems to be going in the wrong direction.”

“Even when we play well, we don't create chances and concede too easily. We definitely need to look within and examine what we are not doing well. And we have to get better very quickly, otherwise it will be very difficult to come back from these losses.

“It's football. It is difficult to find reasons for what is happening to us. I can't remember this team losing three games in a row in seven and a half seasons. It just seems like this team is going down the wrong path.” Now.

“The good thing is that even though we lost these three games, we are still in a good position, especially in the Premier League. After losing three games, we are still in the main competitions and fighting for everything. But of course we have to get better.”

“Our injured players have to come back because we need them and it’s just not good enough tonight.”

“No crisis at Man City”

Clinton Morrison on football special:

“There is no crisis.

“In the Carabao Cup defeat against Tottenham he left Erling Haaland on the bench and Guardiola said afterwards that they had performed well.”

“With the loss to Bournemouth you fear they are a bit open but I wouldn’t say there is a crisis at Man City.”

“There could have been a different result against Sporting. They had to take advantage of their chances in the first half. You have to score points when you’re at the top.”

“However, they are far too open at the moment, but there is no Ruben Dias and no John Stones. Defensively they weren’t good enough, but they missed so many chances.”

“When City lose a few games you always talk about a crisis, but they still have the best coach in the world. It’s worrying how open they are, but at the end of the season I still see them winning trophies.”

Amorim: Result means nothing for Man Utd

Sporting boss Ruben Amorim:

“What I can tell you is that this (result) has no particular meaning – don’t take anything from it.

“We cannot translate one reality into another. Manchester Untied can’t play the way we play and we have to adapt.”

“It's misleading, we were very lucky today, but the feeling with my players, the way they celebrated with the fans was very special. I take that with me, but when I come to the Premier League it’s a different world, a different pressure.”

“It will be fun, very fun, and I’m up for the challenge”

Gyokeres: We should have scored more goals

Sporting striker Viktor Gyokeres:

“It's always nice to score a goal and even better to score a hat-trick. The most important thing was to win the game, so it was a brilliant night for us.”

“We knew it would be difficult and we didn't get off to a good start. We knew they would give us space and to be fair we could have scored more than four goals. They could have scored more goals.”

“You have to raise your level when you play against better opponents. I tried to keep doing what I was doing.”