Sporting take on the visitors Steaua Bucuresti at “Estadio Jose Alvalade” in the first-leg game of the Qualification final round of the UEFA Champions League. The match will be played in Lisbon on Tuesday, August 15th.
Sporting will debut in this season’s Eurocups. After the summer break “Leoes” conducted only two clashes in domestic competitions: vs. Aves 2:0 and vs. Setubal 1:0. Last season Sporting settled on the third place in the Portugal’s Primeira Liga with 70 points taken. In summer Sporting sold only Ruben Semedo to Villarreal for solid 14 million EUR while enforced their squad by Cristiano Piccini,
Bruno Fernandes, Seydou Doumbia, Jeremy Mathieu and Marcos Acuna. It means that the club is determined at least to improve its bronze position and it is obvious that “Leoes” tend to promote to the Group stage of the UEFA Champions League.
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Steaua Bucuresti entered the season in mid-July and have played already eight matches with not a single defeat in them. In the Eurocups the Romanians knocked out Plzen 2:2, 4:1 while in the Liga 1 the side gained 12 points with eight goals for and five goals against in six encounters and sits on the third place in the standings. Steaua Bucuresti won four recent games at away turfs with 8:2 aggregated score, still their opponents’ level was lower than the upcoming rival’s one.
Sporting are much stronger than the Romanians in means of their roster and budget, plus they will play in front of their supporters, thus the hosts are the favourites of the first-leg battle. I believe that the Portuguese will try to solve the issue of their promotion to the next stage in the first clash.
Prediction for the match: Sporting to win with -1.0 Asian handicap.
