In Portugal they like to say green is the colour of hope, and that hope is the last thing to die. At Sporting, those aren’t sayings. They’re a working model.
A 3–0 humiliation in Norway against Bodø/Glimt in the first leg of a Champions League last-16 tie looked terminal. The numbers said it. Logic said it. Most of Europe said it. Sporting refused. Under the lights in Lisbon, with about 50,000 behind them and an old, stubborn belief humming around Alvalade, they ripped the tie apart with a 5–0 win and walked into their first Champions League quarter-final for 43 years.
Next up: Arsenal. Next up: a familiar question. Is this just cultural romanticism, or is hope the most dangerous weapon Sporting own?
The ghost of Gyökeres – and the man who replaced him
Part of that belief comes from the recent past. Sporting know they can hurt Arsenal. Ricardo Sá Pinto, the former coach, player and club icon, hasn’t forgotten the Europa League last-16 tie in 2023, when Sporting knocked Arsenal out on penalties.
“The fact that Sporting beat Arsenal not too long ago helps the players believe it’s possible,” he says. “Anything can happen in football, even when teams are theoretically uneven.”
The theory said something else last summer. When Viktor Gyökeres left for Arsenal, it was supposed to rip the heart out of this team. Two seasons, 97 goals, back-to-back league titles. A centre-forward who didn’t just score but terrorised backlines, smashed through duels, and turned long balls into panic. You don’t replace that. Not quickly. Not cleanly.
Sporting did not just lose a star. They lost him in a way that stung. Gyökeres effectively forced his way out, a move that many supporters saw as betrayal. The goals were gone and the affection went with them. On paper, it was a wound that would take years to heal.
Then Luis Suárez walked in.
Not that Luis Suárez. This one is a Colombia international, not a global icon, and he arrived from Spain’s second tier, where he had hit 31 goals in the 2024–25 season for Almería. The signing felt smart, not spectacular. A solid striker, a gamble on upside.
He has become something else entirely.
Suárez has repeatedly dragged Sporting out of trouble this season, often deep into stoppage time, when the crowd’s hope starts to fray and the clock begins to mock them. Sá Pinto has watched with interest.
“Luis has shown the ability to score very important goals, even after people stop believing it’s possible,” he says. “Replacing Gyökeres is never easy. Historically, South American players rarely make a strong impact in their first year in Portugal. Thankfully, with all the confidence shown by the manager and his teammates, he has been very important.”
The contrast with his predecessor is stark. Gyökeres was all about raw force and vertical chaos: bullying defenders, attacking space, turning every loose ball into a duel he expected to win. Suárez works in different colours. He drops in, links play, dictates movements in the final third. He has cleaner technique, a sharper touch, more patience in tight areas. Maybe he is a shade less ruthless in front of goal, but 33 goals in 42 appearances tell their own story.
Supporters who once feared life after Gyökeres now barely mention his name. Suárez sits on top of the league’s scoring charts and, in a city that measures strikers by how they carry the shirt, he already feels like the reference point.
Old scars, new chance
Sá Pinto knows what a deep European run does to this club. In 2012 he took Sporting to the Europa League semi-finals. They knocked out Manchester City in the last 16 and stood a few minutes from the final, only to concede an 88th-minute goal to Athletic Bilbao that still hurts in these parts.
The Champions League has been even more unforgiving. Sporting’s last appearance at this stage of the European Cup came in 1983. They have never gone beyond it. This quarter-final is not just a tie. It is a door that has been locked for four decades.
Domestic form suggests they have the tools to kick it open. Sporting are the most prolific attacking side in Portugal by some distance, their football often flowing and relentless. Yet they trail Porto in the league, sitting second, five points back with a game in hand. Porto’s defensive steel has overshadowed Sporting’s fireworks.
Then came Porto’s slip at home to Famalicão last Saturday. Suddenly the title race flickered again. A third consecutive championship, once slipping out of view, moved back into focus. The season’s narrative bent slightly in Sporting’s favour. Hope again, in green and white.
Borges’ blueprint
The man stitching this together is Rui Borges, who walked into a storm last season. Ruben Amorim’s sudden departure for Manchester United left a void on the touchline and in the dressing room. João Pereira, promoted briefly from the youth ranks, stumbled. Borges inherited a fractured situation and a squad that would soon lose its star striker.
He kept the core. He changed the shape.
Under Amorim, Sporting lived in a 3-4-3, wing-backs flying, wide overloads, constant vertical pressure. Borges has gone another way. His Sporting usually line up in a 4-2-3-1, a system built on midfield control and long spells of possession. Against smaller Portuguese sides, they often advance up the pitch with slow, deliberate circulation, shifting opponents from side to side, waiting for gaps to open.
Arsenal will not be so generous. They will press higher, bite harder, compress the spaces Sporting enjoy at home. Any slip in a sensitive area, any lazy touch in midfield, could turn into a sprint back towards their own goal.
That is where Morten Hjulmand becomes essential. The Danish defensive midfielder and captain plays with a permanent edge, covering ground, snapping into duels, cleaning up transitions. He is the hinge between Sporting’s patient build-up and their need to react when possession is lost. He is also a weapon in the other box, a regular target from corners and free-kicks.
Set pieces could matter. Sporting, like Arsenal, lead their domestic league for goals from dead balls. In a tie where open play might be tense and tight, one corner, one flick, one scramble could tilt everything.
Gonçalves between the lines, Arsenal in the crosshairs
Then there is Pedro Gonçalves, still framed in English minds by that outrageous 50-yard lob at the Emirates in 2023. He remains one of Sporting’s most influential figures, and not just for highlight reels.
Gonçalves roams. He drifts wide to exploit full-backs, drops into midfield to collect and turn, then appears between the lines where defenders hate to look over their shoulders. He reads flaws in opponents and moves towards them, not away. Under Borges, that freedom is a feature, not a luxury.
Arsenal are likely to dictate long stretches of tempo. That is their habit now, especially against teams that want the ball. The tie may hinge on how well Sporting manage the very spaces they dominate in Portugal but will be forced to share here. Can they stay brave enough to build, yet disciplined enough not to hand Arsenal the transitions they feast on?
Somewhere in that tension lies the outcome. Maybe in a late run from Hjulmand to a near-post corner. Maybe in Gonçalves slipping into a pocket between lines. Maybe, as so often this season, in Suárez appearing in stoppage time when everything seems lost and the stadium holds its breath.
Sporting have spent a year proving that hope is not just a slogan on a scarf. Against Arsenal, we find out how far that belief can really carry them.
