2000/01 · Home

Champions after an 18-year wait, Sporting began 2000/01 with two firsts on this shirt: PT on the chest, replacing Telecel, and the Champions League group stage. Black collar with Sporting embroidered at the nape and Reebok vectors woven into the hoops. The 2-2 with Real Madrid at Alvalade in September 2000, with goals from Sá Pinto and André Cruz, was the high point of a group finished in last place.

In the league the title defence unravelled early: Inácio sacked in November, Fernando Mendes as caretaker, Manuel Fernandes from January. Third place in the end, Acosta top scorer and the Supertaça rescued only in May 2001, in a replay in Coimbra, 1-0 against FC Porto with a penalty from the Argentinian.

Here at Hoopster, this is the shirt of Sporting’s first Champions League night, the younger sister of the 1999/00 title shirt that also lives in this archive.