Manchester City resume their Uefa Champions League campaign on Tuesday night with a trip to Portugal, facing reigning Primeira Liga champions Sporting Clube de Portugal.
A team which has recently won the title, knocked out Borussia Dortmund from Europe and sold or loaned-to-sell Nuno Mendes, Matheus Pereira, Wendel and Bruno Fernandes across the last three seasons, they’re rarely out of the headlines and have the capacity for an upset.
Form this season
Second in the Primeira Liga, Sporting CP look set to lose the title they won last year - largely as they failed to win on Friday night against league leaders Porto. That match saw five red cards (three for Sporting) and four goals split in a draw, leaving Ruben Amorim’s side six points adrift with 12 games to play.
They’ve won 17 of 22 and were on a four-match win streak before the draw - while earlier in the campaign they managed a 12-game winning run across all competitions, including victories in Europe over Besiktas and Borussia Dortmund and against local Lisbon rivals Benfica.
In the Champions League, SCP finished second behind Ajax, winning and losing three apiece to finish above Dortmund on the head-to-head ruling.
Key players
Top of the list of in-demand Sporting players this summer will be Pedro Goncalves, better known as Pote. He’s a forward-thinking, creative and expansive attacking midfielder, usually playing in the right channel in support of the centre-forward, capable of fierce shots from range, clever lofted passes to find runners behind the defence and neat first touches to take on his man in close quarters.
Elsewhere, Pablo Sarabia - on loan from PSG and a key part of Spain’s Euro 2020 squad last summer - is enjoying a fine run of form in the final third since December, while the lynchpin of the defence is former Liverpool man Sebastian Coates.
The wing-backs have been something of a rotating cast this term, but former Man City youth prospect Pedro Porro is often a good outlet on the right with his ball-carrying ability. In goal, Antonio Adan was among Spain’s top stoppers for a short period with Real Betis in the middle of the last decade and is now a reliable veteran as the last line of defence.
A wildcard impact option might turn out to be new signing Marcus Edwards, Tottenham trained and brought in from Vitoria Guimaraes in January, but he’s only played once off the bench so far.
Manager
If Pote is No1 on the wishlist from the Estadio Jose Alvalade for many clubs, head coach Ruben Amorim won’t be too far behind.
Only 37 years of age, he won the Taca da Liga with Sporting Braga before moving to his current club and winning both that cup and the league title last term - and making it three in a row in the Taca at the end of January, Sporting beating Benfica in the final.
That silverware represented instant returns on a huge fee: Sporting shelled out an unprecedented €15m to land the boss from Braga, a huge expense by any club’s standards for a manager, let alone a team outside of Europe’s top five leagues.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, given his nationality, Amorim cites Jose Mourinho as his real influence, though he’s very much making those traits appear on the pitch in his own way. He has already been linked with other clubs, including Manchester United.
Style of play
Under Amorim, it’s a back three - both at Braga and now with Sporting. First and foremost, he has built a side which doesn’t concede goals often: a goal only every 132 minutes in the Liga, the best defensive record in the league and with only three occasions this term having conceded more than once - all in the last two months.
In Europe it has been somewhat different though: free-scoring Ajax netted nine across the two games, with 12 conceded in the six group games all told.
While they of course dominate possession at times domestically, they are perhaps most at home when allowing opponents to control play while they dictate territory, keeping shape with diligence and concentration, always alert to spring counter-attacking chances.
It is here they’ll be looking to hurt Man City most - defending with intent, and breaking with fearlessness.
