Watch Porto And Sporting Lisbon Share Four Red Cards In Five Minutes Of Madness

Porto and Sporting Lisbon was billed as a big battle in the Portuguese title race.

And a big battle was duly delivered, with five players sent off on Friday night, including four in five minutes of madness after the game had ended.

Before chaos descended it had looked like being a brilliant evening for Sporting.

The visitors had led 2-0, thanks for goals from Paulinho and Nuno Santos, and were in good shape to close the gap to leaders Porto to just three points.

But Porto got a goal back before half-time through Fabio Vieira, before the first red card of the night further shifted momentum in their favor.

Sebastian Coates was dismissed on 49 minutes for receiving his second yellow card. Sporting managed to maintain their lead for almost half an hour, but Mehdi Taremi leveled the scores with his 14th club goal of the season.

The scoring was over but the main event was yet to come.

It began with a Porto corner. With the ball in the air after goalkeeper Antonio Adan had made a fine save, Porto defender Pepe threw himself towards the ball, only the fall to the ground after seemingly colliding with Joao Palhinha's high boot.

Pepe stayed on the ground and writhed in apparent agony, while still watching the play continue. And with referee Joao Pinheiro seeing no infringement, play did continue for another minute.

When Pinheiro blew the final whistle, the football ended and the fighting began. 

Players, staff and even ball boys all got involved.

Naturally, Pepe was at the center of the shenanigans and he, Palhinha, Bruno Tabata and Agustin Marchesin all joined Coates on the ref's red list.

Referee Joao Pinheiro had a busy night as he showed five red cards in Porto vs Sporting Lisbon

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