Viktor Gyokeres can give Ruben Amorim ideal Sporting send-off against Manchester City

LISBON – Sporting Lisbon coach Ruben Amorim is relying on red-hot striker Viktor Gyokeres to inflict damage on future rivals Manchester City, in his final Champions League match at the helm on Nov 5.

The 39-year-old has agreed to take over at Manchester United on Nov 11 to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag, and the City clash at the Jose Alvalade Stadium will be Amorim’s last home match with Sporting.

With both sides starting the Champions League with two victories and one draw in their first three games, Gyokeres has the perfect stage to demonstrate the level he has reached, against the English Premier League holders and 2023 Champions League winners, as well as to offer his departing coach one final gift.

The unstoppable Gyokeres has 16 league goals in 10 appearances – scoring four times in his last outing – while he also has two strikes in three Champions League games this campaign.

Last season, the 26-year-old Swede was the key figure for his team in his first season at the club as Amorim led them to only a second league title in more than 20 years.

Gyokeres was signed for a club-record fee of €20 million (S$28.7 million) plus add-ons from English Championship club Coventry City.

Both quick and strong, he is a complete striker with a lethal finish and can threaten a City side shaken by injuries and a 2-1 defeat by Bournemouth on Nov 2.

The forward has a €100-million release clause, which makes him an expensive option for prospective admirers, of which there is no shortage.

Brighton & Hove Albion plucked Gyokeres from Swedish club IF Brommapojkarna in 2018 and sent him on loan to German side St Pauli, where he played mainly on the left. After loan spells at Swansea City and Coventry, he signed permanently for the latter in 2021 and continued growing physically stronger.

In the 2022-23 season, he scored 21 times in 46 Championship matches and it led Sporting to break the bank for him.

Gyokeres had eight Premier League options according to his agent Hasan Cetinkaya, but Amorim’s presence was an important factor in choosing Sporting.

“I only brought Gyokeres to Sporting because of Ruben Amorim. (Because of) his strategy, how he plays, how he develops players,” he explained to Portuguese newspaper Record.

Amorim has helped Gyokeres flourish, but the coach suggested he would not try to bring the striker to Old Trafford in the January transfer window.

“Gyokeres costs 100 million and it’s very difficult,” he explained on Nov 1.

For his dress rehearsal for the Manchester derby in mid-December, Amorin has no major injury concerns as he looks to keep his unbeaten run going, while stopping City’s own record-breaking 26-game unbeaten run in the Champions League.

Sporting are leading the Portuguese top flight with maximum points and a goal difference of 32 after 10 games, though City have a very good record against Portuguese opponents.

They have lost just one of their 10 games in major European competitions against Portuguese sides (W6, D3).

Pep Guardiola, who has his own Scandinavian goal machine in Erling Haaland, will be without midfielders Rodri, Jack Grealish and Oscar Bobb, and defenders Ruben Dias and John Stones, though Kevin de Bruyne could make his return after being an unused substitute against Bournemouth. AFP