Sporting Lisbon take on Man City in the Champions League tonight with manager Ruben Amorim getting a taste of what it will be like to compete with Pep Guardiola when he arrives in the Premier League.
Amorim was confirmed as United’s new head coach last week but will not make the move to Old Trafford until November 11 meaning he has two more games in charge of Sporting. The first of those is against City and the scoreline is currently 1-1.
Manchester United transfer target Viktor Gyokeres equalised the scoring after 38 minutes, but the Swede should’ve had one earlier when he wasted a glorious 1-v-1 opportunity with Ederson.
There’s just no stopping Viktor Gyökeres in that position 🤖
21st goal of the campaign for the Sporting striker.
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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 5, 2024
Footage courtesy of TNT Sports
Gyokeres now has eight goals and three assists in the Champions League.
For the goal, Sporting picked the ball up near their box and it was fired long to Quenda. The space opened up in-behind the City defence and Quenda found Gyokeres running in. He was clean through, but under pressure from Rico Lewis.
Viktor Gyokeres makes no mistake after missing sitter
Gyokeres made no mistake as he surged towards goal before squeezing a bounced finish past Ederson.
What a way to wet United’s appetite for a new forward next summer. The first team is lacking goals, despite adding to the striker department in the summer when Joshua Zirkzee joined from Bolonga.
Amorim will hope he can get more out of United’s attacking players when he arrives, including Rasmus Hojlund, who only recently returned from injury.
The Dane is our main striker and it doesn’t look like Zirkzee will be pushing him for a place in the team anytime soon.
Hopefully Sporting can beat City tonight and put a dent in their European campaign. Amorim will be credited if he can take points from Guardiola in Europe.
City went into the game third in the standings due to their superior goal difference and they will be aiming to remain in the automatic qualifying spots. They might need three points to achieve that.