Antonio Adan, the goalkeeper for Sporting Lisbon, experienced a Champions League “disaster class” against Marseille.
On October 4, 2022, Marseille played host to Sporting Lisbon in a UEFA Champions League group stage encounter.
Following the crowd disturbances during Eintracht Frankfurt’s 1-0 victory at Marseille last month, the game was played without spectators.
On Tuesday night in France, the Spanish star and his teammates went from joy to gloom in 23 minutes, thanks to Antonio Adan’s disastrous goalkeeping performance.
Adan had a terrible 22 minutes during which he allowed Marseille to score twice before getting sent off in the Champions League game. After the Portuguese team got off to such a strong start in France, the seasoned Spaniard had a night to forget.
At the Stade Velodrome, Adan had already witnessed his teammate take a 1-0 lead in the opening minute. Francisco Trincao, a former Wolves loanee, had given them the lead.
Twelve minutes later, however, Antonio Adan made his first error. After a ball was played back to the shot-stopper, the 35-year-old dallied, and Alexis Sanchez quickly closed him down.
He gave Marseille the equalizer by directing his clearance at the former Arsenal player. The Ligue 1 team subsequently took the lead after Adan’s sloppy clearance placed his team under pressure. Amine Harit again deposited the ball in the back of the net for Adan.
Then, after only 22 minutes, Antonio Adan was removed from the game by Italian referee Davide Massa. Nuno Tavares, an Arsenal loanee, was close to being closed down by the former Real Madrid goalie, but he managed to stop him with his hand before he could enter the penalty area.
After perhaps one of the worst games in Champions League history, he trudged off the field.
Sporting manager Ruben Amorim brought in goalkeeper Franco Israel in place of former Tottenham star Marcus Edwards. As Marseille scored the third goal just before halftime, the 22-year-old Uruguayan goalie didn’t fare any better than his red-carded teammate, Antonio Adan.
At a corner, Israel stormed out of his goal and attempted to punch the ball away. Israel was clumped together on the ground until Leonardo Balerdi reached the ball first and headed into an open net.
Later, Chancel Mbemba added a fourth goal to make it 4-1 for Marseille.
Sporting was unable to recover as Marseille controlled the rest of the game. Mbemba added gloss to the victory in the 85th minute with a close-range goal.
Alexis Sanchez, Amine Harit, Leonardo Balerdi, and Chancel Mbemba scored for Marseille as they defeated Sporting to snap their unbeaten streak after failing to score in their first two Group D losses.
Both teams are placed in the same Champions League group as Tottenham of the Premier League. In their first match in the competition in more than two years, Spurs overcame Marseille.
But three weeks ago, Sporting overcame Antonio Conte’s team, who had been playing well. In the 2-0 loss, their former midfielder Edwards stood out.
While Marseille enjoyed a 4-1 home victory over Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday, Tottenham drew 0-0 with German Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt on the same day. Yet, Sporting is still topping Group D with 6 points, Tottenham second with four points, Frankfurt third with four, and Marseille sits at the bottom of the group with three points.
Things go from bad to worse for Sporting Lisbon as keeper Antonio Adán sees red for this handball… 🟥 pic.twitter.com/V8MxAZibsA
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 4, 2022
