published: thursday 16 february 2012, 21.10cet legia warszawa 2-2 sporting clube de portugal
andré santos came off the bench to score a delightful 88th-minute effort that gives the portuguese outfit the edge going into next week's return.
sporting clube de portugal denied legia warszawa victory in their uefa europa league first-leg after andré santos came off the bench to score a delightful goal two minutes from time.
legia forged ahead midway through the first half when jakub wawrzyniak poked the ball between rui patrício's legs after the hosts failed to deal with a set piece. daniel carriço came off the bench to head sporting level on the hour but the polish side restored their lead courtesy of janusz gol's first goal of the competition. however, just as maciej skorża's charges seemed destined for a first-leg victory, santos produced a wonderful curling effort to ensure ricardo sá pinto avoided defeat in his first game in charge.
after a slow start, the match sprung into life when the visitors failed to clear a maciej rybus free-kick and wawrzyniak made no mistake from close range. danijel ljuboja spurned a great chance to double the polish side's advantage straight after the break and substitute carriço made him pay, heading in matías fernández's free-kick to equalise on 60 minutes.
sporting were buoyed by their goal but, against the run of play, legia restored their lead as rafał wolski broke the offside trap and found gol for the simplest of finishes. however, the hosts were denied by andré santos, who found the top-left corner with the outside of his right boot to ensure sporting go into the second leg on 23 february with an away-goals advantage.
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