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Ruben Amorim and Sporting CP have enjoyed an extremely impressive few years but the Portuguese champions will now seek to take that to the continent as they kick off this UEFA Champions League campaign against Lille at the Jose Alvalade.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Tuesday 17th September, 2024 - UK – 8:00pm / US ET – 3:00pm / US PT – 12:00pm
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – TNT Sports / US – CBS Sports
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – TNT Sports / US – Paramount+, ViX, Fubo, DirecTV Stream
SPORTING CP PREVIEW: SPORTING’S SUCCESS
For 20 years, Sporting CP hadn’t won the Portuguese Primeira Liga. Ruben Amorim has been in charge for four years now and the Lisbon-based club have added two league titles to their tally ever since. The exciting and still young coach has yet to make a mark on UEFA competition, bar a UEFA Europa League Round of 16 victory against Arsenal a couple of years ago, so the time to take the next step is now.
They come into this one on the back of hammering Arouca by three goals to nil and that means they have won all five of their games in the league so far this season. They have conceded just twice and scored 19 goals in the process – ten more than anybody else.
LILLE PREVIEW: LITTLE SETBACK FOR LILLE
Over the summer, after a fourth place finish and reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Lille lost manager Paulo Fonseca to AC Milan and replaced him with former Olympique Lyonnais and Stade Rennais boss Bruno Genesio.
It was a bright start to the campaign for Lille with back-to-back Ligue 1 victories coinciding with qualification for the UEFA Champions League with a playoff round victory over Slavia Prague. However, they have now suffered three successive defeats across all competitions and most recently suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at the Geoffrey-Guichard against newly-promoted and, as of then, pointless Saint-Etienne.
SPORTING CP TEAM NEWS: READY AND RARING TO GO
There are a couple of absentees for Ruben Amorim to deal with, aside from Diogo Pinto who has not been named in their squad. Defender Jeremiah St. Juste is sidelined alongside Vladan Kovacevic.
Sporting have plenty of stars nowadays, though, and the stars are ready and raring to go. The ability to keep hold of the likes of Goncalo Inacio, Pedro Goncalves and Viktor Gyokeres this summer has set up a promising season.
PREDICTED XI (3-4-3): Franco Israel; Eduardo Quaresma, Diomande, Inacio; Catamo, Morita, Hjulmand, Santos; Trincao, Gyokeres, Goncalves
UNAVAILABLE: Kovacevic (Injured), St. Juste (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
LILLE TEAM NEWS: PLENTY OF ABSENTEES
Three players that have been listed by Lille as being a part of their UEFA Champions League squad are unavailable for this one with Ismaily sidelined alongside Ethan Mbappe and Iceland international Hakon Haraldsson.
However, there are also plenty of other longer term absentees for Lille with the lead story for that being Nabil Bentaleb. The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest over the summer.
PREDICTED XI (3-4-2-1): Chevalier; Santos, Alexsandro, Diakite; Meunier, Bouaddi, Andre, Gudmundsson; Zhegrova, Cabella; Bayo
UNAVAILABLE: Ismaily (Injured), Mbappe (Injured), Haraldsson (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
KEY STATS
SPORTING CP VS LILLE PREDICTION
This is a game between two sides that aim to play football in a positive and progressive manner with both sharing similar ideals. Ruben Amorim has been in charge of his Sporting side for a lot longer than Genesio at Lille and has put together a squad that is capable of putting in really impressive performances at this level. Lille have a bit about them but at the Jose Alvalade, with home atmosphere, advantage and excitement; backing Sporting looks the way to go for this one.
SPORTING CP VS LILLE TIP: SPORTING TO WIN