Sporting looked to bounce back from Tuesday's derby defeat to Benfica against relegation-threatened Olhanense at the Alvalade.

 

Leonardo Jardim kept new signing Héldon Ramos in at the start alongside Carlos Mané. William Carvalho returned after his costly suspension and left-back Jefferson returned to the team after his injury lay-off.

 

Meanwhile Olhanense boss Giuseppe Galderisi was without the injured Mario Santana but Federico Dionisi returned to the starting line-up after serving his suspension.

 

As expected it was the home side who started the better of the two teams. The first real sight of goal from Sporting coming from an Adrien Silva corner in which Maurício almost opened the scoring with a back post header, the Brazilian central defender just missing the mark.
 

Four minutes later though and Sporting got the goal. Some great skill by Fredy Montero carved his way into the box and the Colombian found Carlos Mané just yards in front of an open goal for the 19-year old to get his 3rd goal in just 4 starts.

 

There was controversy in the 27th minute when it looked like Fredy Montero had doubled Sporting's lead after heading in from a Jefferson freekick. The goal was ruled out for offside despite TV replays showing the Colombian was at least a yard onside. The incident strangely mirrored a similar occurrence in the reverse fixture when an offside Montero goal was allowed to stand.

 

Olhanense were doing themselves no favours with their defending from corners as, in the 40th minute, Sporting again went close. This time Marcos Rojo at the far post looked certain to score but the Slovenian goalkeeper Vid Belec did superbly well to punch off his line.

 

The visitors did show that they were still a threat to Sporting just before half-time when Federico Dinisi found room in front of Rui Patrício but the goalkeeper, celebrating his 26th birthday today, easily saved the Italian's shot.

 

Giuseppe Galderisi made a change at half-time bringing on Pelé to replace Rui Duarte and the visitors improved dramatically.

 

Sporting started to find it difficult to create in the final third and Olhanense looked more and more dangerous.

 

Paulo Sérgio had a great chance in the 63rd minute as the Olhão club countered but the forward's powerful shot was well saved by Rui Patrício.

 

Olhanense beginning to threaten seemed to wake Sporting up and after the introduction of Wilson Eduardo and André Carrillo it was the hosts who began to look the most likely scorers again.

 

The Peruvian looked like he had a point to prove and one beautiful long-range curling effort bounced off the post with Belec beaten.

 

Olhanense gave Sporting one last big scare in the game when it looked like Dionisi was going to tap in an equaliser but the striker's shot was blocked. The resulting rebound could have gone anywhere but in the end went just past Rui Patrício's post in a moment of panic at the Alvalade.

 

So it finished, in the end, a subdued win over Olhanense for Sporting. The only real concern for Leonardo Jardim is that his team could not build on their early lead, Fredy Montero now reaching 600 minutes without a goal is certainly not helping matters. Meanwhile William Carvalho's excellent return showed just how important he is to the team.

 

Olhanense now slip to the bottom of the table but with relegation rivals Paços de Ferreira set to face Benfica tomorrow could see themselves back up to 15th.