'He dismantled both of them' - national media deliver Ruben Amorim unanimous Man City verdict

Manchester United certainly saw more than what they would have hoped for during Sporting Clube de Portugal's Champions League win over Manchester City.

Sporting thrashed City 4-1 in Lisbon, with Viktor Gyokeres netting a hat-trick and Phil Foden scoring the only goal for the visitors. It was City's third consecutive defeat in all competitions and comes just days after the loss at Bournemouth.

This week is Amorim's last in Portugal before taking over from interim manager Ruud van Nistelrooy at Old Trafford on November 11. Amorim will be in charge of his final game for Sporting at Braga on Sunday and will work with his new players during the international break ahead of their trip to Ipswich Town on November 24. With that said, MEN Sport has taken a look at how the national media reported on the events in Lisbon.

READ MORE: Man City boss Pep Guardiola sets clear Ruben Amorim challenge ahead of Man United arrival

READ MORE: Viktor Gyokeres sell-on clause and why it may back Manchester United into a corner

The Telegraph's Oliver Brown wrote: "On a night when all eyes were trained on Ruben Amorim, the Sporting sorcerer saying goodbye to his heartbroken home fans, you could hardly ignore the desperation in the demeanour of his opposite number, incredulous at how the reigning four-time champions of England could have morphed within a week into such a rabble. As Amorim was hurled into the air by his players and staff, sending him off to Manchester United with one of Sporting’s greatest European results, Guardiola had long since stalked off the pitch, sweeping down the tunnel with a face like thunder as he digested the indignity of losing a third straight game.

"Amorim outsmarted him tactically, demanding an unrelenting intensity of his players and lifting Gyokeres, latterly of Coventry City, to the level of a world-beater. The Swede adorned Amorim’s emotional exit with a hat-trick and could have scored more, so effectively did Sporting throw City off the stride. Such is the hallmark of a manager famed for never tolerating a dip in standards. His arrival in England promises to be quite the occasion – as does his first Premier League meeting with Guardiola on December 15, in the Manchester derby.

"This was City’s worst loss since a 5-2 thumping by Leicester in September 2020 and just the second time in the Guardiola era that they had shipped four goals in a Champions League game. The first was against Barcelona in 2016, in his first few months in charge. Nobody foresaw that Sporting would inflict a similar humiliation. Amorim was already known as richly talented – Guardiola, for one, has been a consistent admirer – but here United’s manager-elect flipped European football’s axis of power on its axis."

For the Independent, Andy Hampson added: "Ruben Amorim insists nothing can be read into Sporting Lisbon’s stunning defeat of Manchester City as he prepares for a 'different world' at Manchester United. The 39-year-old will come up against City again in a Manchester derby in little over a month’s time, but he does not think Sporting’s remarkable Champions League triumph will have any bearing. "When I arrive in Manchester I will be living in a different world with a different starting point. This was a one-off and we had luck on our side. I will take this to the Premier League, but it will be different in Manchester. It will be fun and I am ready for the challenge."

"Amorim had quipped before the game that he would be built up as the ‘new Sir Alex Ferguson’ if he beat City, but he was quick to play that down and insist he would not be reading any media reports. He said: "I was playing with words when I said that, it was a joke. I am not going to read anything for six months. I did this when I came to Sporting and I will do it again. The only way I can do my job is to work and focus on the team."

Simon Burnton of the Guardian, stated: "After the final whistle Rúben Amorim trudged on to the pitch clutching his gilet, realised the next 10 minutes of his life would be better spent without a gilet and trudged off again to get rid of it. It was the only misstep of an extraordinary final evening at a raucous Jose Alvalade, during which his side conceded after just four minutes, somehow clung on to a single-goal deficit during an opening 35 minutes in which Manchester City threatened to bring his era to a jarringly humiliating conclusion, and then across a remarkable second half executed a joyful filleting of the English champions.

"After this result the first thing Amorim will have to manage in Manchester is expectation, and that work started straight after the game. Asked if he had a message for United’s fans, he did not hesitate: "This means nothing," he said. "Don’t take anything from this. We were lucky. It was a one-off. It doesn’t mean anything." Clearly Amorim is not a natural limelight-basker, and if perhaps he did not fully embrace this occasion that was just about the only thing that went unhugged across an emotional final night in front of his home fans before he departs next week for Manchester United.

"A couple of hours earlier he had been the last man out of that tunnel before the game, whereupon he shared his first hug of the evening with Pep Guardiola and strolled to the Sporting bench. But the idea that that would be all the attention he was going to get lasted only as long as it took for an epic – giant seems much too small a word for it – portrait, decorated with the single word 'obrigado' – thank you – to be lowered in front of the opposite stand, and club president Frederico Varandas to beckon him on to the pitch to receive a framed poster. What he must have wanted most of all was about to come, as a night that might have been tinged by sadness and regret became one of pure sporting joy and bewildered, bewildering noise."

The Daily Mail's Oliver Holt, concluded: "Underneath his unzipped hooded top, the taxi driver who got out of his cab in the rank at Lisbon airport wore a sky-blue Manchester City shirt with Etihad Airways emblazoned on the front. It was Tuesday lunchtime. The game was only a few hours away. I asked him if he was a City supporter. 'I support whoever is Sporting's opponent,' he said. So he was a Benfica fan? 'Benfica crazy fan,' he said. He mentioned the name of Ruben Amorim and I asked him if he was pleased he was leaving Sporting. 'Finally, he's going,' the taxi driver said, putting his hands together to make the sign of an answered prayer. 'If Gyokeres can leave, too, that would be even better.'

"And so it is that, as he stood on the touchline at the start of this Champions League clash with City, his final home game in front of the fans who worship him, Amorim has become a symbol of hope for so many. For supporters of Benfica and FC Porto and Braga, who have grown tired of the Sporting hegemony Amorim has established in Portugal and cannot wait to be rid of him. To them, his departure will presage the end of the tyranny of a hated rival. But most of all, for Manchester United fans desperate for him to start work as their seventh 'permanent' boss in 11 years on Monday and deliver them from their post-Sir Alex Ferguson purgatory as it eases into its second decade.

"The astonishing game that played out here will only fire that hope. Amorim had called City the best team in the world and Pep Guardiola the best coach in the world but he dismantled both of them."