Nani came back to his “old house” and had a big group of supporters and press waiting him on his return to Sporting Lisbon. The player claimed he was proud and that was a moment he would never forget.
The supporters wouldn’t forget his first game for Sporting this season either, if the game had ended in a draw. Lucky for him, Carlos Mané entered the game and played really well, even scoring the goal that would give his team the 1-0 victory in the last minute of stoppage time. But why did this help Nani? Because Nani missed a penalty kick that he wasn’t even supposed to be taking!
Nani – playing for the team or for himself?
Nani was a starter against Arouca – a must win for Sporting – and showed some of his skills when it came to dribbling. The problem started when Nani started to take every single free kick and then a penalty kick, when Adrien was last season’s penalty kick taker and only missed one the entire season. A little bit like when Ricardo Quaresma returned to FC Porto would take every single corner kick, free kick or penalty kick.
So, what does this show us? In my opinion, as a Sporting and Nani fan, it might mean two things. Either he is a player that is going to use his skills to help his beloved team to reach success, or he will just try to show off these same skills and see if some big European club tries to sign him. If he takes the first option, the coach will tell him every time he is doing something that is not helping the team and he will take it and try to do better next time, and in that way he will score many goals and help the team with his huge talent. On the other hand, if he takes the second option, either the coach or the president will tell him when he is doing something wrong and he is going to act like a sulky, spoiled child and destroy the team spirit.
Nani already apologized for that penalty. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do it again! But should he be punished? I don’t know what happened between him and the coach after the game, but Sporting are going to play against Benfica next Sunday, and that will be a really important game for both sides, and if Nani is going to play his heart out for the team, let him start and play his heart out for the team! The problem is making sure he is not going to “hurt” the team after what he did against Arouca. Actually Carlos Mané showed he deserves to play more than Nani since he made the whole difference in that game against Arouca, and even “saved” the new Sporting star, Nani, because of this winning goal. So if the coach wants to play Nani against Benfica, Carlos Mané should play as well.
In my opinion, this game against Benfica is going to change everything. If Nani is a starter, and plays well, then he will be forgiven. If he doesn’t play well, he won’t. And if he doesn’t start against Benfica, people will want to give him a second chance, but will he want to take it?
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