That day the lions roared again in Europe

On Wednesday, Sporting played their last match in the league in the new Champions League format against the Italian outfit Bologna. The Portuguese team may be preferred to achieve a positive result this week, but go back over three decades when the two teams last met in European competition – at a time when Italian pages were head and shoulders over all other nations when it came For club football – that was definitely not the case.

Nevertheless, Lions scored a famous victory over the Seria A team. Miguel Lourenço Pereira takes us back to 1991 and a memorable evening at José Alvalade Stadium.

Sporting supporters have not had as many European glossy nights as their big three rivals FC Porto and SL Benfica. Their historic top came a few years before the continental tournaments kickstarted, and despite the brilliant victory of the 1964 Cup Winners Cup edition, few the memorable matches were played along the way so far.

But that doesn’t mean there was no one, even though most supporters tended to forget the times when Leões was able to appear at a level worth their domestic history. In 1990/91, there was no greater achievement than making an Italian side a shame. It was a season when the UEFA Cup was played by two Italian pages, at a time when Italian teams usually played one, two or even the three continental finals in the same season, sometimes against each other. It makes March 20, 1991 an even more special evening. The endless roar of the lions of the old alvalade still repeats in eternity.

Surpassed in Europe by domestic rivals

Until 1990, Sporting CP had only played two European semi -finals, both at the now Extinct Cup Winners Cup. The one they won back in the mid -1960s, and the one they lost in Magdeburg underwent Night Portugal their most historical political moment in the 20th century, Carnation Revolution.

At that time, Benfica was already a two-time European cup winner and had played-and-lost-six other finals, including the previous season’s European Cup showdown. Porto had won the same competition in 1987 and played the 1984 Cup Winners Cup final, lost against Juventus. You can say that at the beginning of 1990/91 would expect Sporting, which hadn’t even won the league for eight seasons in a row – a club record at the time that would be increased by a whole decade – to become the best priesting Portuguese side in the season’s continental competitions. But they were and deserved it.

Lions had to play in the UEFA Cup again with Benfica and Vitória SC, after Porto qualified for the European Cup and Estrela Da Amadora played in the Cup Winners Cup. They were drawn against KV Mechelen in the first round, a Belgian side that had recently won the Cup Winners Cup final against Ajax, a team that should not be messed with. They were tough opponents, and only a Jorge Cadete goal in Lisbon broke the dead water between both sides. With both Benfica and Estrela, Sporting was already the only Portuguese side in the tournament in October. Politecnica Timissora was much more weak opponents and was duly beaten before Vitesse was also postponed by the Lisbon club just before the winter break.

Italian dominance

Of the last eight teams in the competition, half were Italian, a reflection of the country’s hegemonic rule of the tournament back in the day. Only the season before the final had been played between Fiorentina and Juventus, and many expected a recognition of two Italian enemies in the end. Sporting, along with Brondby Anderlecht and Torpedo Moscow could only hope for a nice move in their advantage, but if the Soviets and Danske were awarded a free passport to Semis by playing each other, both the Belgian and the Portuguese sides were forced to meet the Italian favorites . Sporting was tied to playing Bologna, sitting eighth at the time in the ever -demanding series A.

Coachet by Luigi Radice, a hard-core veteran who had coached Turin, Inter, Milan and Roma in the past, had been called up to save a page from a catastrophic season. The Reggio-Emilia team consisted essentially of Italian football players in the middle class. There was the promising defender Paolo Nero, the Hungarian Lajos Detari and the upcoming Swiss international Kubilay Turkylmaz, but this was no team of stars.

Sports Sprinkles of Star Name

Sporting on the other hand had a lot of class internationals in their ranks. The well-loved Marinho Peres, a former Brazilian international and a Barcelona player who had named himself as Belenenses and Vitória SC coach before moving to Alvalade, could call them as Oceano, Carlos Xavier, Litos, Mário Jorge, Krasimir Balakov, Jorge Cadete as well as veteran striker Fernando Gomes among others. There were also youth players ready to jump ship, such as Luís Figo and Emílio Peixe, who were getting back-to-back under-20 world championships the following summer. Still, the aura in Italian football was just too much and everyone gave Bologna the upper hand in a draw.

The first match was to be played on the iconic Renatto dell Ara Ground in Bologna. The website was not as dominant as expected, and despite Turkylmaz, who opened the scoring right after the break, offered a late equalization of Luisinho, with two minutes left on the clock, sporting a golden opportunity to stay alive in the tournament. They only needed to stop the Bologna scoring in the return leg to move on to Semis, and suddenly was optimism in the air. José de Alvalade was packed for the apartment, and rightly, as sporting supporters knew that the club was only 90 minutes away from reaching their first European semi -final in seventeen years, not a slight performance.

Crackling atmosphere

During a brilliant atmosphere on March 20, Sporting took control right from the start and Filipe scored early, but the goal was not allowed for offside. By taking some prisoners, Lions continued to start, and in the twentieth minute, Jorge Cadete finally scored, a brilliant header after a perfect cross from the right of Carlos Xavier. Xavier then took a free kick inside the box and shattered the ball into the woodwork before the break, at a time when the home ground was running, and many expected the second goal to land fast enough. It was only at the end of the game that it happened. Between Sporting continued to create chances, Kadete lacks many incredible, it has to be said, and Bologna was rarely dangerous on the counter.

It was a penalty kick that put the game to rest with ten minutes to spare. A mistake that took place outside the box, on Filipe, was transformed into a punishment, and Fernando Gomes, an expert in world -class, easily the web that ended any doubts that some may still have about sports chances of doing semis.

Lonely survivors in Europe

The last ten minutes were lived as a collective party for a page that was already out of the Portuguese Cup and the match for the title, eventually won by their neighbors Benfica, but now in the UEFA Cup had a chance to get the story to to happen. They were also the only Portuguese side that was still playing in Europe when Estrela had been out since October, and Porto ended up being beaten by Bayern Munich in the European Cup quarterfinals that week.

It was also Marinho Pere’s birthday, so there was cake and champagne to end the night. Club President Sousa Cintra, Vocal as usual, proclaimed its side to be one of the best in Europe and favorites for the trophy, but everyone else knew how difficult it would be to reach the final. With Inter and Roma that went on to Semis, there was hope that the draw would pit the two Italian giants against each other, but it was not. While Gialorrosi defeated Brondby, Sporting had to face the mighty Inter -Side coached by Giovanni Trapattoni, who had Andreas Bremhe, Jurgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaus, all recently crowned world champions with West Germany as their most influential players. Inter was considered one of the best sides of European football, after winning Scudetto only two seasons before and were clear favorites to move on.

Star -studded Inter a bridge too far

And after all, they were unable to score on the Alvalade match for the first leg, a goalless move that left everything to play for on San Siro. For sporting supporters, there was hope in the air, after a well -fought battle at home, at least guaranteed that there would be nothing outside of cursing them on their trip to Italy. Unfortunately it wasn’t. Sporting played bravely, but an early punishment scored by Matthaus followed by another goal by Klinsmann before the break at the break sealed their fate. They were very close to making history, but eventually Logic and Inter won the tournament as expected.

The lions had to wait another fourteen years to reach a European semi-final when they beat the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the dying seconds before hosting CSKA Moscow in the same UEFA Cup final, losing painfully on the new alvalade ground . Over the past thirty years, few European nights with alvalade were as memorable as the one against Bologna, a day when the lions proved their value and showed Europe that despite all the glory and fame of Italian football, they were still worthy opponents.

By Miguel Lourenço Pereria, Author of “Bring me that horizon – a journey to the soul of the Portuguese football”.