Sporting wins men’s Super Cup for first time in 32 years

The men’s team of Sporting Clube de Portugal lifted the 2024 Super Cup trophy on Sunday after beating reigning national champions Sport LISBOA e Benfica 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-22, 25-19) in a match played at the Pavilhão Desportivo Municipal de Santo Tirso. 

This way, the ‘Lions’ secured their fourth Super Cup triumph and their first in as many as 32 years (their latest such success had come in 1992), in a match in which the effectiveness of their service and block transition – Sporting served well and blocked even better – was fatal to the organisation of Benfica’s offensive game, who are still the club with the most trophies in the competition with 11 to their name.

It was a dream start to the season for João Coelho’s side, who had already beaten their Lisbon rivals 3-1 in the final of the 2024 Iberian Cup played a week earlier in Matosinhos.

Pablo Natan Machado (SL Benfica) with 24 points, and Edson Valencia Gonzalez (Sporting CP), with 21, were the top scorers in the game.

João Coelho, Sporting CP coach, stressed: “I think what made the difference in this game was our aggressive service, and on the other hand, we were always very solid in terms of defence too. I think we blocked better; we were also better at attacking. Perhaps these were the main reasons. We won because we were better. This start to the season has been what we dreamed of; obviously we went in galvanised and motivated to win these trophies [the Iberian Cup and Super Cup], but there is never a guarantee of victory. I think we deserved it; we were the better team on both weekends. I am delighted because it was a goal, but we must keep on working hard, there are still a lot of stones along the way, and we must solve a lot of problems to stay at this level.”

Marcel Matz, coach of SL Benfica, acknowledged: “Sporting has been playing very well; they are serving very well and manage to put pressure with their service game, which has low levels of error. Their service came in better than ours, and playing like that, and after they got the lead, the pressure on our side was even greater... We made a few mistakes, which we could not afford especially in the third set, which was crucial for us. The first set was balanced, the second we won well, and we should have played better in the third set, which was the key moment of the match. We did not manage it, and then Sporting started the fourth set well ahead and increasingly motivated and ended up winning. That was the reality of the game.”

This past season, SL Benfica became men’s national champions for the 12th time, and the fifth in a row, by beating Sporting CP at Luz 3-1 (25-21, 16-25, 25-15, 25-23) in the fifth and final game of the championship series in the Liga Una Seguros. Sporting CP beat Associação de Jovens da Fonte do Bastardo by the narrowest of margins (3-2: 25-16, 20-25, 25-22, 20-25, 22-20) in the final of the Portuguese Cup, played at the Viana do Castelo Cultural Centre.

As in recent editions, the Super Cup matches utilised the video challenge system, which makes it possible, at the request of one of the teams, to review the video images relating to certain decisions made by the refereeing team, eventually confirming or overruling them.