[José Alvalade. Lisbon. Thursday May 3. 19:54 BST.]
Forty-eight thousand in green and white when we walked out.
The Palace away end was up at the corner at the far side. Two thousand eight hundred of them. Across the back of the away end the banner: MATEO. SEE YOU AT LYON.
Wayne. Aaron back. Mama with the armband. Konaté. Ben. Mili. Rúben. Olise on the right. Eze in the ten. Wilf wide left. Christopher off the line.
The Sporting end did its thing. Sporting. Sporting. Sporting.
BLEEP.
[19'.]
Sporting came at us in the first ten the way Bruno Fernandes had told his teammates to come at us in the first ten.
By the eleventh we had the ball back.
By the eighteenth Rúben had it in midfield with the press all around him and Eze in the half-space because the half-space was where Eze lived.
Rúben played him.
Eze took one touch. Looked up. Sporting's left-back was four yards too high.
He played the ball with the outside of his right.
Wilf was running.
