Sporting win Portuguese title as rivals fail
Sporting Lisbon clinched their 18th Portuguese league title on Sunday when rivals Boavista lost 2-1 at 10-man Benfica to leave the new champions with a winning lead at the top of the table.
With one game left to play, Sporting head the standings with 72 points, five ahead of second-placed Boavista, the defending champions.
Only a win would have kept Boavista in contention, and Bolivian free-kick specialist Erwin Sanchez put them ahead in the 41st minute with a shot from 20 metres that curved around the Benfica wall and past goalkeeper Jose Moreira.
But fourth-placed Benfica were determined to move up the table for a berth in next season's UEFA Cup, grabbing an equaliser in the 55th minute when Brazilian defender Argel Fucks headed home from a free-kick.
Benfica played the last 13 minutes with 10 men after Italian defender Emanuele Pesaresi picked up a second yellow card.
But they grabbed the winner in the 82nd minute when Boavista goalkeeper William Andem dropped the ball at the feet of unmarked Angolan striker Pedro Mantorras at the edge of the area and the forward scored.
Sporting missed an early chance to clinch the title on Saturday when they could only manage a 2-2 draw away at Vitoria Setubal.
STREET PARTY
Car horns began sounding in Lisbon even before the Benfica-Boavista game had finished as green-and-white clad Sporting fans descended on the central Rossio square to celebrate the title their team last won in 2000.
An emotional Mario Jardel celebrated his fourth Portuguese league title from home, having previously won three championship medals with Porto.
"We're champions!" Jardel exclaimed on cable channel SportTV as he cracked open a bottle of champagne.
"We deserved to win the championship after the way we played all season. And it was the best possible title for me after I scored 40 goals, and I am really grateful to my team mates and the club for all they have done."
Boavista trainer Jaime Pacheco congratulated Sporting and said that he would now aim to land a second place in the championship in order to play in the Champions League next season.
"I think that today we did justice to a season in which we always played to win and I think we deserved a different result after what we did today," he said. "But we won't be discouraged by that because we think we can still finish second."
