In Alcochete, Rui Borges saw the left-footed player come on with half an hour to go and show some good moments.
Daniel Bragança is back on the pitch. The left-footed player played for the first time since February 15, 2025, when he was injured in the draw against Santa Clara, which means a return almost a year later.
It all happened on Sunday morning, during Sporting B’s 2-1 defeat in Alcochete against Académico Viseu , in a game where the Lions even started by taking the lead.
But we’ll get to that later.
Before that, it’s worth mentioning that Daniel Bragança started on the bench and was called upon to replace Manuel Mendonça with half an hour to go. With Rui Borges in the stands, watching the return of one of the first-team captains, Bragança positioned himself in front of the defense, directed the players, and always placed himself in the path of the ball.
Furthermore, he started by making a great pass into the area, which wasn’t well utilized, then he worked well in the attacking zone, took two opponents out of the way and shot hard, but against an Académico defender, and in stoppage time he made a long pass, which was intercepted by the opposing defense and allowed Gabriel Silva to shoot powerfully and just wide of the post.
Académico equals Sporting B in second place.
Bragança was therefore the best news for Sporting this Sunday, in a game where the B team scored first, thanks to a goal by Paulo Cardoso in the eighth minute, after an assist from Rafael Nel.
Académico, however, proved to be a very difficult opponent and equalized soon after. In the 14th minute, a poor pass from David Moreira allowed Kharaman to score on the rebound after a save by Diego Calai.
Until the end of the first half, the most dangerous plays continued to belong to Académico, who took the lead after Daniel Bragança came onto the field: João Guilherme deflected the ball into the goal in the 71st minute, following a cross from Soufiane Mousseguem.
A goal that was analyzed for a long time by VAR, due to a possible handball by Mousseguem before the cross, which however seems totally accidental and therefore was not enough to disallow the goal.
Until the very end, Sporting pressed forward, came close to equalizing, but couldn’t manage it. With this result, Sporting suffers its third consecutive defeat , is caught by Académico Viseu in second place , and could see Marítimo pull further ahead in the lead of the Second League.