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LISBON. – “Sporting ending was written like this”
Ruben Amorim summed it up perfectly.
His last Sporting home game, after four and a half years helping transform the club, pitted against a Manchester City side which cast a decade-long shadow over his new Manchester United team by virtue of the total domination that was once theirs.
A quirk of the fixture list – and Sporting’s refusal to let Amorim leave immediately – created the story.
Destiny should decree it had the perfect ending.
“It was written, it had to be like this,” said a delighted Amorim after Sporting had condemned Manchester City to their third defeat in a week and their biggest loss since September 2020.
The celebrations went on for a long time.
Fans were still heard singing across the city hours after the final whistle had been blown.
Amorim was repeatedly pushed to the front of the Sporting squad as they made their way round a well-deserved lap of honour to take the acclaim of fans it had been said turned against the 39-year-old but it turns out still love him.
A reluctant hero on the basis he has said he didn’t really like attending the public ceremonies that have accompanied Sporting’s two Portuguese title wins, the first of which ended a 19-year wait, Amorim was eventually tossed in the air by his players.
They clearly have a huge amount of admiration for the man who will be their boss for one more game, at Braga on Sunday.
After that, he heads to England.
For a new challenge.
And what a challenge it is.
“At Manchester United you cannot play exactly like this. You cannot play so defensively and so we will have to adapt.
“Clearly it is really difficult to beat this team and to beat Pep Guardiola. And he is not a worse manager than me.
“It will be a completely different world, a different team,,” he said. – BBC
Online Reporter