The squad led by Nuno Dias dominated the game and demonstrated their superiority over the other teams in the league.

The Minhotos, who had defeated the Lions in the Portuguese Cup final and had not lost to them throughout the regular season, were unable to respond as they went almost 60 minutes without scoring in this match, giving their poorest performance of the three games.

Sporting was up 4-0 at the break, and Braga's job which lacked Robinho today almost collapsed.

Sporting got out to a fast start and had many scoring opportunities in the opening minutes. Merlim scored the first goal in a one-on-one play that saw him dribble past Fábio Cecílio and finish with a good shot.

After nine minutes, Sp. Braga was unlucky once more when it went to 2-0. Diogo Santos attempted a shot, but Cecílio missed the cutback and scored an own goal. The ball wasn't even going towards the goal.

Joel Rocha's team cut the deficit in the very next minute with a long-range effort from Tiago Brito, capping a goalless 60 minutes in the match. This was one of their few opportunities.

However, Sporting maintained their lead and continued to threaten Dudu's goal, despite the goalkeeper's challenging saves. Nevertheless, they were unable to prevent goals from Pauleta and Zicky Té before the first half concluded.

Sp. Braga continued to exert pressure in the second half, but Sporting's victory was almost a formality. Zicky scored twice in the 27th minute to seal the victory.

The Sp. Braga players attacked with the goalkeeper to provide an extra man but unfortunately, Merlim made it 6-1 by taking advantage of the goal's deserted state after losing the ball.

Even with João Rocha already in a celebratory mood, goals from Ygor Mota and Fábio Cecílio allowed Sp. Braga to cut the lead.

As of right now, Sporting holds the record with 19 national futsal trophies, 11 more than Benfica, who currently have eight.

Author

A passionate Irish journalist with a love for cycling, politics and of course Portugal especially their sausage rolls.

Rory Mc Ginn