Sporting CP and Manchester City meet in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg on Tuesday 15 February.
Sporting have their work cut out. City continue to go from strength to strength this season and look to be on a mission to go one stage further in this competition than they managed when they reached the final last term.
Josep Guardiola has key players coming to the boil just when he needs them most as well as the luxury of a cushion at the top of the Premier League.
Possible line-ups
Sporting: Adán; Inácio, Coates, Feddal; Pedro Porro, João Palhinha, Matheus Nunes, Matheus Reis; Sarabia, Paulinho, Pedro Gonçalves
Man. City: Ederson; Stones, Rúben Dias, Laporte, João Cancelo; De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo Silva; Mahrez, Foden, Sterling
What the coaches say
Rúben Amorim, Sporting CP coach: “Our tactics could change. We have several players who can play in different positions. When we look at City, we realise that we cannot manipulate our team to cover all the spaces because they change. We will try to impose ourselves on the game. We’re not going to change anything about our identity.”
Josep Guardiola, Man. City manager: “We have had an incredible run but, especially, we have behaved well. In Leipzig [on Matchday 6] we weren’t ready mentally after already qualifying, but the rest [of the campaign] was good. I say every day, we compete for ourselves. Every three days. We’ve done that for the past years, and we will do that again tonight.”
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