Sporting (a)

Great win yesterday, arguably our best performance of the season so far. Martin Odegaard's return has made a massive difference and it allowed a more fluent attacking display. Next up on Tuesday night is a Champions League away game in Portugal.

Our CL Story so far...
Two tough games in Italy saw us fail to score in either of our away CL fixtures, sneaking a draw at Atalanta before losing 1-0 to Inter. However, with 2 home wins, we find ourselves in 12th place but just 2 points outside the top 8. We are the only club to have played all pot 1 and 2 opponents, so on paper we should have an easier second half of the campaign!!

Sporting in the CL
The Portuguese champions sit second in the league on 10 points, with only Liverpool's perfect record out doing them.
Last time out they smashed Manchester City 4-1 in Lisbon, coming from a goal down to beat the English champions. Prior to that they have beaten Sturm Graz and Lille, and drew 1-1 away to PSV.

Sporting domestic form
Perfection so far, with 11 Primeira Liga wins from 11 games. They average just shy of 4 goals a game and only conceded 5 times. A 2-0 home win over nearest challengers Porto is the standout result. They have also won 3 cup games out of 3 across their 2 domestic cup competitions, including a 6-0 win on Saturday with a shadow squad.

The boss
Of course, a big story of their season is the departure of Ruben Amorim to Manchester United. He has been replaced by Joao Pereira, the former Sporting and Portuguese right back. Pereira has come up through the ranks, taking charge of their u23s and then second team before taking on the challenge of replacing Amorim. He started well, a 6-0 cup win!

The dangerman
Viktor Gyokeres should be a name all Arsenal fans know, he has been linked to us enough... After failing to break into the Brighton team, Gyokeres moved down a league to Coventry and helped them to the brink of promotion with 38 goals in 2 seasons. He moved to Sporting for the 22/23 season and netted 29 league goals and 43 in all comps as Sporting won the title. This season he has 16 in 11 league games, 5 in 4 in the CL and 24 in 19 across all comps.

The Providers
Trincao is the main provider for Gyokeres, with 10 assists already this season. He isn't shy of a goal either, with 4. Geovany Quenda works in tandem with Trincao down the right, and has 2 goals and 2 assists from right wing back.
Their left side has been disrupted by an injury to Pedro Goncalves, who had contributed 5 goals and 6 assists before his year ending injury. Maxi Araujo played in conjunction with him down the left, so it remains to be seen who replaces Goncalves. Mozambique star Geny Catamo may be an option.

The Back Three
It is expected Pereira will continue with a back 3, with Belgium star Zeno Debast looking a star at just 21 years of age. Ousmane Diomande is even younger at 20, and should be expected to the be at the heart of the defence, with Matheus Reis the experienced one at 29.

Midfield tenacity
Danish star Morten Hjulmand is the man tasked with winning the ball and he could be partnered by either Japanese international Hidemasa Morita or home grown Daniel Braganca.

In goal
Franco Israel is the man between the sticks for Sporting. A rather inexperienced stopper, 24 years of age but just 20 top flight appearances. He was signed from Juventus ahead of the 22/23 season after playing for their second side. He has one cap for Uruguay, and this season has established himself as #1 following an injury to Vladan Kovacevic that has seen the Bosnian on the bench since his return.

Head to Head
We have recent history with Sporting, losing to them on penalties in the 22/23 Europa last 16. A 2-2 draw in Lisbon looked to be a good result, with Saliba and a Morita own goal for our goals. However, after a Xhaka opener at the Emirates, Gonclaves equalised and it went to penalties. After 9 perfect hits, Gabriel Martinelli saw his effort saved and Nuno Santos netted the winning penalty.
We meet Sporting in the Europa group stages in the 18/19 season. Danny Welbeck scored the only goal in a 1-0 win for Arsenal in Lisbon, while the game at the Emirates ended 0-0.
A Fairs cup second round meeting in 69/70 saw a 0-0 first leg draw in Lisbon before John Radford and two goals for George Graham saw us safely through. We went on to win our first European trophy that year!

Record in Portugal
We have played 11 fixtures in Portugal and won just ONE!! - the aforementioned win over Sporting. We tend to draw over there, 6 times so far. The majority of our defeats have come to Porto (3) with one against Braga. We have only scored 7 times in Portugal, conceding 12.


It should be a tough match. A win will put us firmly in the race for top 8 while defeat could leave us outside the top 16. With 'easier' games on the horizon a draw would be an acceptable outcome here, with the hope 9 points from the last 3 games and 17 points overall will be enough for top 8 and avoidance of the extra round.