Sporting was crowned the winner of the Portuguese Supercup last night (August 9) after beating Lisbon rivals Benfica 1-0 at a packed Algarve Stadium.
André Carillo scored the decisive goal seven minutes into the second half with a shot that was luckily deflected by teammate Teo Gutiérez and helped fool Benfica’s goalkeeper Júlio César.
Sporting were always the most dominant team and could even have scored sooner, had Gutiérez’s shot not have been wrongly annulled due to an alleged offside in the first half.
Benfica never were able to find their game, although their penalty appeals for a foul over Nicolás Gaitán in the last 20 minutes of the match fell on deaf ears.
For Benfica coach Rui Vitória, it was a bad start to his career in the club, which lost its chance to win its second Supercup in a row.
On the opposite side, Jorge Jesus only needed one game to win his first official trophy as Sporting’s coach, after six successful years at Benfica.
The match was played in front of around 30,000 people at the Algarve Stadium with no major incidents reported among fans.
