Sporting CP vs Lille Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 UEFA Champions League | League Phase
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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
- K Sporting CP were successful in both previous UEFA competition meetings between these two teams. They won 2-1 away and 1-0 at home in the group stage of the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League.
- Sporting CP have won 21 and drawn two of their last 23 competitive matches at home.
- Sporting CP have won only two of their last nine matches in the UEFA Champions League competition proper (D2 L5).
- Sporting CP have won their Matchday 1 fixture in two of their last three UEFA Champions League campaigns (L1). Most recently, a 3-0 away victory against Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2022/23 competition.
- Sporting CP have not failed to score in their last 11 UEFA competition matches.
- Only one of Sporting CP’s last 44 UEFA competition matches finished without a goal being scored.
- Lille have lost their last four UEFA competition matches against Portuguese teams, and going back further, they are now without a win in their last six UEFA matches against Portuguese teams (D1 L5). Since a 2-0 away victory against Leiria in the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
- Lille won their last three matches when they last featured in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2021/22.
- Lille have not won on Matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League in their previous seven appearances (D4 L3).
- Edon Zhegrova has scored in three of Lille’s previous four UEFA competition matches this season.
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
