If the week of preparation for a game is made up of exhaustive video sessions, scenarios to explore, intense training and many experiments to fit better against opponents, there are strategies that become clear in the first minute of the game. As soon as the ball starts rolling and the opening whistle sounds. That is what happened in Famalicão. Clear as water: a Sporting taking the reins, with more initiative, settling into the opponent's half; a Famalicão that, in turn, sought to respond with organisation, aggression and a clear disposition not to offer spaces to the lion. A kind of balance between control and dominance against resistance. That lasted until the… 81st minute. The last nine minutes of the game were another story. We'll get there.

First note: the surprise in Sporting's XI with Rui Borges leaving Zalazar on the bench. A gigantic show of confidence in young Flávio Gonçalves, 19 years old, who occupied areas usually occupied by the Uruguayan in the attacking zone. With the support of Geny Catamo and Luís Guilherme on the flanks. Two can openers to pierce very tight spaces. But always well nullified by either Pedro Bondo or Rodrigo Pinheiro. And Famalicão was very much this. Tight marking, fighting for their lives in every duel, giving control to the lions - first 45 minutes with more than 70% possession - but always crashing into this armoured Minho wall.

The data was laid out in a game that was far from a spectacle for the fans. On one side, Sporting dominating but always at a low tempo, without accelerating much; on the other, Famalicão limiting itself to dropping deep and very rarely coming out with any criteria (unsuccessfully) whenever it managed to recover the ball. The hottest moment of the first half arrived when the lions put the ball in the net. Flávio Gonçalves's celebration, however, did not last long. The play ended up being disallowed after VAR intervention, for handball by the young Sporting player. Sporting was thus left without the reward for one of its best approaches to the area.

From that moment on, the match gained another temperature. Famalicão realised it could hurt Sporting and began to contest the game more away from its own area. And it could even have been happy had it not been for one of the saves of the night, with Rui Silva shining after a header from Sorriso. On Famalicão's first shot. In the 41st minute…

In the second half, despite the lions' signs of urgency in bringing down the Minho wall, little changed. The match had nerve, intensity and an uncertainty that held out until the end. Whenever one of the teams seemed close to taking control of the game, the other found a way to respond. Sporting tried to speed up, find spaces between the lines and give greater continuity to its attacking football, and Famalicão closed paths, won duels, never giving up on seeking its opportunity.

Rui Borges brought on Ioannidis and Zalazar to give more firepower to the attack. Bets that increased the pressure. Pushing (even more) the game closer to the Famalicão goal, trying to find, among crosses, combinations and more direct attacks, the play that could unlock everything. And here we arrive at that 81st minute. When Suárez beat Carevic, from a penalty, giving the idea that all the insistence would be worth the desired victory. It did not. Because from here on… there was another game. And another Famalicão that woke up, hit a ball against the woodwork (85’), saw Roméo sent off (87’), with attacking sharpness as it had not yet had in this game. It left the art of resistance and for the first time… adopted another type of art. The one everyone seeks. Being happy. Already after the 90’, in a moment of misfortune from Gonçalo Inácio that betrayed Rui Silva. The lion still went back to insisting, but unlike Famalicão, it did not leave the art of insistence.