Lask won 3-2 at Sporting from fewer chances than usual

Sporting CP led from a Luis Suárez penalty after five minutes, but Lask Linz won 3-2 by hitting seven shots on target and scoring three.

Luis Suárez put Sporting CP ahead from the penalty spot after five minutes, and that was the last time the home side held the lead. Christoph Lang levelled for Lask Linz at 15 minutes, and the visitors then took over through two goals in the second half. Suárez's second goal, at 89 minutes, only narrowed the gap to 3-2. The result is clear enough, but the more interesting question is how few chances Lask needed to win it.

Sporting had 61% of the ball, which left Lask with 39%. That is close to the 42.8% share Lask average over four away matches this season, so the visitors were not unusually short of possession. The shot count is where Lask's afternoon looks unusual. They took 11 shots, well short of their usual 19.8 away from home, while Sporting's 15 sat just above the league average of 14.6 shots per team.

Shot counts say nothing about quality, so it helps to look at expected goals, a figure that gives each chance a value based on how likely it was to go in. Lask's chances added up to 1.14, against the 2.06 they usually create away from home. Sporting's reached 2.95, well above the league figure of 1.76 per team. Four of Sporting's 15 shots were on target, against seven of Lask's 11, and Lask turned their smaller pile of chances into three goals while Sporting scored two from a bigger one.

Lang's equaliser came early in the first half, from a pass by Kasper Jorgensen. The decisive stretch came later. Sasa Kalajdzic put Lask ahead at 63 minutes after a pass from Robert Ljubicic, and Krystof Danek put them two clear at 68, set up by Samuel Adeniran. Those two goals, five minutes apart, were the moment the match tilted, and Sporting's reply at 89 minutes came too late to change the outcome.

Lask's defensive numbers were also better than their usual. Sporting's chances came in below the 3.36 that Lask normally concede in away games, and the visitors let in two goals against a usual 2.8. Suárez scored both home goals, and he finished with a rating of 8.2, the highest in either side's list. Nobody was sent off, though Lask were booked five times to Sporting's two, and Danek picked up his yellow card at 90 minutes.

Lask had won neither of their first two matches, and their two defeats had cost them seven goals. Sporting came into this game with six points from two matches and sat eighth, while Lask were 33rd with none. Sporting still have six points from three games after this defeat, but Lask, who had nothing, now have three.

Player of the matchL. Suárez2 goals8.2

S. Kalajdzic1 goal7.8

K. Daněk1 goal7.7

C. Lang1 goal7.5