All or nothing. Paulo Fonseca can decide Sporting season in... 8 days

Paulo Fonseca traverses a theoretically ideal scenario, in Sporting, since it debuted in the bench of alternates with a victory over Moreirense, in the José Alvalade Stadium, by 1-0, and immediately offered a break for international commitments, which gives him time to put into practice the ideas he has in mind for the new chapter of the career.

However, the panorama that appears on the horizon is far from idyllic, since, after the competitive interruption, the Portuguese-Mozambican will dispute, within eight days, three matches that can dictate, to a large extent, the success (or lack thereof) that will have, in this return to Portugal, the most significant fronts in which the lions are inserted.

Everything will start at 6 p.m. (Hour of Continental Portugal) on 21 November, Saturday, at the José Alvalade Stadium, before the Union of Serra, which will mark the entrance on the scene in the Cup of Portugal. A game in which you have more to lose than to win, since a possible defeat would not only be unimaginable, but would also overthrow one of your main goals.

Just four days later, on Wednesday, the green and white emblem will again play ‘home’ this time against Manchester United. A victory would guarantee, in all likelihood, at least access to the Champions League playoff, while one would force him to overcome in the last three rounds against AS Roma, Barcelona and Manchester City.

For 8:30 on 29 November, Sunday, the long awaited trip to the Dragon Stadium is reserved. A triumph would reduce to six points the distance for the leader of the national championship, FC Porto, while a new ‘swipe’ would increase the ‘fosso’ to 12 points and would end, at once, with hopes of winning the title, just on the 12th journey.

Selections give no truce to Paul Fonseca

Given the importance of this cycle, Paulo Fonseca would certainly like to be able to count on as many players as possible to better prepare the ‘tempest’ that is coming. However, the truth is that the selections left the squad impoverished, since they ‘stealed’ him, nothing less than 20 players.

They were Rui Silva, Gonçalo Inácio (Portugal), Eduardo Felicíssimo, João Simões, Mauro Couto, Rafael Nel (sub-21 of Portugal), Flávio Gonçalves, Salvador Blopa (sub-20 of Portugal), Maxi Araújo, Rodrigo Zalazar (Uruguay), Georgios Vagiannidis, Fotis Ioannidis (Greece), Ivan Fresneda (sub-21 of Spain), Moncef Zekri (sub-20 of Morocco), Issa Doumbia (Italy), Silas Andersen (sub-21 of Denmark), Nestory Irankunda (Australia), Geny Catamo (Moçambique), Jesse Derry (sub-20 of England) and Luis Suárez (Colombia).

It should also be borne in mind that Zeno Debast and Nuno Santos continue to recover from injury, so, over the next week, former Olympic Lyon will have only Kaique Pereira, Diego Callai, Ibrahima Ba, Eduardo Lent, Sergi Altimira, Pedro Lima and Luís Guilherme. It will be necessary to resort to the formation echelons... and ‘sack’ of imagination.