Sports 25 July 2026

The Troféu Cinco Violinos is back at Alvalade tonight, and Monaco is the guest

Sporting host Monaco in the Troféu Cinco Violinos, the last home test before the league starts. Who is playing, what pre-season showed and when the real season begins.

There are pre-season friendlies, and then there is the one where the stadium actually fills up. The Troféu Cinco Violinos is the second kind: the night Alvalade introduces itself to the new season, and this year the invitation went to Monaco.

Who is playing in the Troféu Cinco Violinos 2026?

Sporting and Monaco, at Alvalade, on Saturday, with kick-off set for 7.30pm. The trophy is a house tradition and it always does the same job — giving members their first proper look at the squad before points start counting, against opponents who did not fly in for the weather.

Rui Borges’s side arrive with some road behind them. They went back to work on 1 July at Alcochete, camped in the Algarve between 11 and 20 July and left two calling cards down there: Scottish champions Celtic first, then Strasbourg, in a game where the Lions were in no mood for half measures. After finishing runners-up in the last league season, pre-season is mostly about working out how much this squad has changed — and how much it still will before the window shuts.

When does Sporting’s season properly start?

Very soon. There is one last rehearsal on 31 July, back at the Estádio Algarve, against Vítor Pereira’s Nottingham Forest, and then the games stop being friendly: the Primeira Liga kicks off on the weekend of 8 August, in the league’s 93rd edition.

Kick-off times and tickets live on the official Sporting site. Alvalade has another big night circled later this year too, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s international farewell pointed at this same pitch — but that one is months away. Tonight, Monaco will do.

By Vasco Almada

Image: Footballnerd2007 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

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