Going down: JAIL for violent mob who made Man United ace Bruno Fernandes fear for life at Cristiano Ronaldo's first club (VIDEO)

A gang of violent hooligans who smashed their way into the training ground of Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon and threatened to kill players and staff because they were angry about the club's results have been sentenced in court.

The shocking assault, carried out at the academy and training base in 2018, left members of the 18-time Primeira Liga champions’ squad fearing for their lives as the thugs threw torches that let off smoke and told the players to take their shirts off.

Nine of the attackers received five-year prison sentences and 29 were handed suspended sentences of up to four years and 10 months after a trial that heard how the likes of former Netherlands striker Bas Dost had needed treatment for head injuries sustained during the brutal incursion.

Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio told the jury that the assailants had threatened to break his jaw. “They told us to take our shirts and said 'you are a shame' and ‘we are going to kill you’,” he recalled. “It was a very stressful moment.

"Vasco Fernandes, who was our technical secretary, tried to close the locker room door but he couldn't. They came in with their faces covered and started attacking.

"They didn't talk to anyone, they started attacking. They came in very aggressively. They came with everything.

"There was confusion, there was smoke, there were shouts. When they entered the locker room they threw torches. We tried to calm them down, but they were very aggressive.”

Then-club president Bruno de Carvalho had been accused of helping to organize the horde but was cleared in court.

New Manchester United signing Bruno Fernandes, who joined the Premier League club from Sporting for around $57 million in January, spoke of his terror in court, saying he had seen blood in the mouth of coach Jorge Jesus.

“I had never felt this way before,” he admitted. “I feared more for the lives of my family than my own, especially that of my wife and daughter. I asked my wife to go to Porto to be sure nothing would happen to them.”

Seven players, including Dost and four members of Portugal’s 2018 World Cup squad, ended their contracts as a result of the rampage, citing “just cause” at the end of a season in which they had narrowly missed out on a Champions League place and would go on to lose the Portuguese Cup final.

Cristiano Ronaldo offered his support to the players after the attack at the club where he started his career. "I'm 100 percent behind them," he told Portugese TV channel RTP after the gang attack.

"It's a troublesome situation. I must always be on the side of the players and the coach. We are doing the same job."

Responding in a statement, Sporting said the act of “gratuitous violence and crime” had been “the darkest day” in the club’s history.

“These events indelibly marked Sporting CP and Sportinguistas, bringing very damaging consequences for everyone, which shocked the world,” they added.

“Sport is and must be an increasingly healthy space and not one of. It is important that the whole world of sport come together so that these events do not happen again.”