The reigning champions of Portugal and England meet in Europe’s premier club competition as Sporting CP host Manchester City on Tuesday evening.
Sporting’s ambitions of retaining their first Primeira Liga crown in 19 years were dealt a blow by Friday night’s galling 2-2 draw against league-leading Porto, a match the title holders led by two goals at one point.
City, conversely, extended their unbeaten run to 15 Premier League games with a breezy 4-0 win over Norwich City on Saturday, and Pep Guardiola was even able to rest a raft of key personnel in the process.
Here’s all you need to know about the upcoming European tie.
When is kick off? Tuesday 15 February, 20:00 (GMT)
Where is the match being played? Estadio Jose Alvalade
TV channel/live stream? BT Sport 2 (UK), TUDN (US), DAZN (Canada)
Highlights? BT Sport YouTube channel
Referee? Srdjan Jovanovic
VAR? Marco Fritz
The unenviable task of replacing Manchester United-bound Bruno Fernandes fell on the slender shoulders of Pedro ‘Pote’ Goncalves. In a debut campaign for the Sporting annals of history, Goncalves finished as top scorer in the entire division from attacking midfield as his new side claimed the title.
However, Sporting could be without the 23-year-old’s services this midweek after he sat out Friday’s top of the table clash against Porto with a muscle injury, but there are slim hopes that he could be back in time for this one.
Joao Palhinha should start as well, having surprisingly started the Porto clash on the bench.
Jack Grealish has suffered a recurrence of an injury that peppered his time at Aston Villa in training, potentially ruling the £100m-man out for as long as a month.
Gabriel Jesus was also left out of the squad that travelled to Norfolk on the weekend – and hasn’t featured since January – but is nearing a return.
Academy product Cole Palmer, however, isn’t expected to bolster his steadily mounting tally of minutes as his nurses a knock picked up during the FA Cup win over Swindon Town.
Guardiola won’t be able to call upon Kyle Walker as the fleet-footed fullback is suspended following a red card in City’s dead-rubber of a final group game against RB Leipzig. Joao Cancelo could take that spot, with Oleksandr Zinchenko on the left.
You can read Man City’s predicted lineup here.
These reigning title holders have only met twice before, facing off home and away in the Europa League round-of-16 a decade ago. Sporting knocked City out on away goals – a fate which cannot befall them this season – as Xandao’s first leg winner in Lisbon outweighed a 3-2 defeat in Manchester the following week.
That first leg loss is the only match in which City have been bettered by a Portuguese side in eight competitive meetings (W5 D2). Though this will be their first return to the city of Lisbon since that 1-0 defeat.
Sporting have lost ten of their 23 games against English sides, last defeating a club from those shores with a 3-0 win over Everton in 2010.
It’s no secret that, on paper, Sporting are one of the weaker sides remaining in the competition, while City are one of the favourites to win the entire tournament.
Yet, while it is unlikely to be quite so cut-and-dried for last season’s finalists against a side that have undergone a remarkable evolution during the impressive Ruben Amorim’s brief reign, City are favourites for this tie (and arguably the entire competition).
Prediction: Sporting 1-2 Manchester City