Welcome to Sportstar's Highlights of the UEFA Champions League 2021-22 clash between Manchester City vs Sporting CP being played at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England.
This was Neeladri Bhattacharjee bringing you the pre-match buildup minute-by-minute updates of this match. That was all for the night. Thank you for tuning in tonight and take very good care of yourselves.
One of the quarterfinal fixtures is set as Manchester City will face Real Madrid after today's matches.
Manchester City progressed with a 5-0 margin of victory on aggregate, while Real Madrid made an unreal comeback against PSG at Santiago Bernabeu. In case you missed that read it below.
1:10 am:What are the coaches saying?
12:45 am: Team Form –
Sporting CP comes into the match with two wins from its last five fixtures, which includes a 2-1 win against Portuguese side Arouca in its last match.
Manchester City, on the other hand, has won four of its last five matches, and comes into this match after a cruising 4-1 victory over local rival Manchester United.
12:27 am: Confirmed starting lineups are out!
Manchester City Starting XI: Ederson, Egan-Riley, Zinchenko, Laporte, Stones, Fernandinho (c), Gundogan, Bernardo, Sterling, Jesus, Foden
Sporting CP Starting XI: Antonio Adan —Luis Neto, Goncalo Inacio, Sebastian Coates— Pedro Porro, Matheus Ruis, Bruno Tabata, Manuel Ugarte— Pablo Sarabia, Islam Slimani, Paulinho
12:00 am: Head-To-Head – Manchester City and Sporting Lisbon have met four times in the past (since 2010) and each side has won twice. In the Champions League, the two sides have met only once, which saw Pep Guardiola’s side thrash the Portuguese side 5-0.
Before that, they had met in the round-of-16 of the Europa League wherein it was Sporting which came out victorious after a 3-3 draw, because of the away goal rule. With that rule gone from UEFA Competitions and with a comfortable five-goal advantage from the first leg, City will look to turn its fortunes this time around.
11:45 pm: Here is how we think the two sides will line up tonight!
Manchester City (4-3-3, probable): Ederson — John Stones, Fernandinho, Aymeric Laporte, Oleksandr Zinchenko — Ikay Gundogan, Phil Foden, Rodri — R Mahrez, G Jesus, J Grealish.
Sporting CP (3-4-3, probable): Antonio Adan — Goncalo Inacio, Sebastian Coates, Matheus — Pedro Porro, Matheus Luiz, Manuel Ugarte, Ruben Vinagre — Pablo Sarabia, Islam Slimani, Nuno Santos
MATCH PREVIEW
Holding a big lead from the first leg, City has the luxury of being able to rotate its players amid a busy run of fixtures in three competitions as the season reaches the business end.
Defense is the area where Pep Guardiola has few options, though, with right back Kyle Walker serving the second match of his three-game suspension, Ruben Dias out for up to six weeks with a hamstring problem and fellow center back Nathan Ake also nursing an injury.
It's up front where Guardiola may make changes, with the game coming three days after the Manchester derby in the Premier League — with City beating United 4-1 — and the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish looking for game time after returning from injury.
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City will reach the quarterfinals for the fifth straight season unless something sensational is produced by Sporting, which is more likely to come into the match in damage-limitation mode after its thrashing three weeks earlier in Portugal.
Since then, Sporting had a home loss to rival Porto in the first leg of the Portuguese Cup semifinals.
( via AP )
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