Sporting 0-1 Barcelona: Coates own goal hands Valverde's side a hard-fought win

Una acción del encuentro entre el Sporting CP y el FC Barcelona | sport

David Salinas

27/09/2017 Upd. on 28/09/2017 at 00:09 CEST

A second half goal earned Barça the three points in Lisbon

The Blaugrana have now won eight games in a row in all competitions

Barcelona made it eight wins in a row in all competitions as they picked up their second win in the Champions League this season, beating Sporting Club 1-0 in Lisbon.

MATCH FACTS

Champions League · Fase de Grupos (jornada 2)

SPO

0 ________________ 1

FCB

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Sporting CP

Rui Patrício (c); Piccini, Coates, Mathieu, Coentrao (m. 73 Silva); William Carvalho, Battaglia; Gelson Martins, Bruno Fernandes, Acuña (m. 73 Bruno César); y Doumbia (m. 44 Bas Dost).

FC Barcelona

Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Umtiti, Jordi Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta (c) (m. 80 Paulinho); Messi; Sergi Roberto (m. 87 André Gomes) y Suárez (m. 89 Aleix Vidal).

Gol

0-1, min. 49. Coates (en propia puerta). Suárez, después de una falta lanzada por Messi, tocó de cabeza y el balón rebotó en el central del Sporting, que introdujo el esférico en su marco.

Árbitro

Ovidiu Hategan (Rumanía). Mostró tarjetas amarillas a Gelson Martins (m. 6) por juego peligroso ante Busquets, a Coentrao (m. 26) por una patada a Semedo en el tobillo derecho, a Doumbia (m. 39) por simular falta ante Piqué sobre la frontal, a Acuña (m. 48) por una manotazo a Semedo en el rostro, a Piccini (m. 53) por agarrar a Iniesta de la camiseta, a Coates (m. 59) por derribar a Suárez, a Semedo (m. 69) por derribar a Battaglia y a Aleix Vidal (m. 90+2) por perder tiempo.

Incidencias

Partido correspondiente a la 2ª jornada de la fase de grupos de la Champions League 2017 - 2018 celebrado en el estadio José Alvalade de Lisboa ante 48.575 espectadores.

However, Ernesto Valverde's side were not at their best and relied on an own goal from Sebastian Coates to win the game.

Valverde picked his strongest available side, with Sergi Roberto taking the place of the injured Ousmane Dembele on the right -- Gerard Deulofeu wasn't even in the squad.

There were few early chances. Luis Suarez curled over from 20 yards and Bruno Fernandes forced Marc-Andre ter Stegen into a routine save.

Barca had a lot of possession but were unable to penetrate in the final third.

Lionel Messi's best chance of a quiet first half came when he wriggled into the box, but his right-footed shot was blocked by former Real Madrid man Fabio Coentrao.

Moments before, Barca's best chance had fallen to Suarez, who fired wide from close range after good work from Messi and Jordi Alba.

A comical moment ocurred before the break, when Seydou Doumbia was taken off injured after being adjudged to have dived, earning himself a yellow card, too.

The breakthrough eventually came early in the second half. Messi's free-kick was flicked on and, under pressure from Suarez, the ball hit Coates and bounced past Rui Patricio.

Sporting pressed for an equaliser but Ter Stegen was in good form, making a second, more impressive save from Bruno.

Barça had chances to make it 2-0, too. Messi was denied by a brilliant block from Jeremy Mathieu, while Paulinho's shot was blocked by Patricio when Ivan Rakitic put him clean through.