Incoming Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim salvaged one of his biggest Sporting victories for his final home game and condemned Manchester City to a third successive defeat for the first time since April 2018.

It was City’s heaviest defeat since September 2020 and only the second time in his trophy-laden spell at City that Pep Guardiola has been defeated in three consecutive games in a single season.

To cap off an extremely depressing evening for City, star striker Erling Haaland blasted a second-half penalty against the crossbar.

Sporting’s own Scandinavian superstar Viktor Gyokeres – formerly of Coventry City – did much of the damage with an excellent hat-trick.

The Swede drove home an equalizer in the 38th minute to Phil Foden’s early opener and then kept his cool by beating Ederson twice from the spot.

The first of those penalties was a disastrous start to the second half for City as they fell several seconds behind after the restart when Maximiliano Araujo raced onto a through ball and fired into the corner.

Sporting regulars in the media stand said the victory was the biggest match of Amorim’s reign, which has one match remaining in Braga on Sunday.

The fear in this part of Lisbon must be that the momentum of seven consecutive wins in all competitions cannot be maintained. Not that it dampened the celebrations at the final whistle.

As for Amorim, he joked on Monday that a win could mean United fans compare him to Sir Alex Ferguson.

That might be a stretch. But there couldn’t have been a better way to put a huge amount of credit in the bank.