- Sporting Lisbon beat Man City 4-1 in Ruben Amorim’s final home game in charge
- The 39-year-old was given an emotional send off by supporters after the game
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The Portuguese press have hailed Ruben Amorim after Sporting Lisbon thrashed Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Amorim, 39, was confirmed as Manchester United’s new boss last Friday, but he won’t start work until Monday, November 11.
The highly-rated coach has had a major impact with Sporting over the past four-and-a-half years, leading the club to two Primeira Liga titles and two domestic cups.
His final home game with the club saw Sporting inflict a bruising defeat on City as the Portuguese side ran rampant in the second half, with Viktor Gyokeres netting a hat-trick.
And, on Wednesday morning, Amorim – who has won 163 of his 260 games in charge of the club – was hailed by papers in his homeland after he gave fans the perfect farewell.
The Portuguese press have hailed Ruben Amorim after Sporting Lisbon thrashed Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday in what was his final home game in charge
A Bola hailed Amorim’s ‘dream farewell’ on what was a memorable night for Sporting Lisbon
Record lauded Sporting’s performance and claimed that ‘United have hired an elite coach’
A Bola’s front page had Amorim being lifted up in the air by his squad, with the headline ‘Despedida De Sonho’, which means ‘dream farewell’.
Record said: ‘Fantastic Lions thrash English colossus,’ before they highlighted the feel-good factor around the club.
Their front page added: ‘The world already knows that… Gyokeres is worth €100million, United have hired an elite coach and Sporting is second (in the Champions League) and can qualify directly.’
Meanwhile, O Jogo went even further and said: ‘They call him Ferguson.’
They added: ‘An epic defeat to the English champions with the most charm in Ruben’s farewell to the (Estadio Jose) Alvalade (Stadium).’
Amorim, whose final game in charge sees Sporting travel to Braga at the weekend, said: ‘It was written it had to be like this,’ when reflecting on the emotional evening.
The 39-year-old will take over a United team who have been badly struggling so far this season, with the Red Devils 13th in the Premier League table and yet to win in the Europa League.
But, speaking following the victory against City, Amorim looked to ease expectations surrounding his arrival at Old Trafford.
Meanwhile O Jogo compared Amorim to legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson
Amorim insisted his dream farewell was ‘written’ as he waved goodbye to Sporting supporters
Amorim has one more game in charge this weekend before he takes over United on Monday
‘I already said previously you cannot transport one reality into another,’ he said. ‘At Manchester United you cannot play exactly like this.
‘You cannot play so defensively and so there we will have to adapt. Clearly it is really difficult to beat this team and to beat Pep Guardiola. And he is not a worse manager than me.
‘It will be a completely different world, a different team, we won’t have that much time to train and we will begin from a different starting point.
‘People can make their own judgements but I say to the people of Manchester that this was a one-off.’
