Sporting prise open Liga title race

The Portuguese Liga is set for a thrilling finale after Sporting Clube de Portugal beat leaders FC Porto 1-0 on Saturday to leave three teams within six points of the summit.

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Porto went into the weekend four points ahead of nearest rivals SL Benfica, nine clear of Sporting, and seemingly on course to reclaim their league crown. The visit of Sporting was unlikely to instil too much fear among the gilded ranks of the champions either, the Lions having won just once away to Porto in three decades. But they came up against a team displaying real hunger at the Estádio do Dragão and were undone by a Rodrigo Tello free-kick midway through the second half - a strike which has thrown the title race wide open.

'No drama'
Sporting now lie just six points behind the leaders, though it is Benfica who could yet be the main beneficiaries. Fernando Santos's team could cut the deficit to a single point if they overcome CF Estrela da Amadora this evening and Porto coach Jesualdo Ferreira admits he is starting to cast anxious looks over his shoulder. "There is no great drama about this defeat," he said. "But the title race is not over; we still have to face Benfica [in Lisbon on 1 April], and then there are seven more games until the end of the season."

'Hard to digest'
The Benfica-Porto match could well decide the destination of the Liga trophy this season, and Ferreira knows he has his work cut out to turn things around after Saturday. "It is a hard result to digest; we didn't play well," he conceded. For Sporting counterpart Paulo Bento, however, it is all systems go again: "Defeat would have made things complicated as we would have fallen 12 points behind. Instead, the gap's down to six and with the game between Porto and Benfica to come, it could soon be less. But I'm worried about our [next] game against SC Beira-Mar. We must win."