Sporting Lisbon take on the visitors Atalanta in the first leg of UEFA Europa League 1/8-finals. The match will be played on Wednesday, February 6th at Estádio José Alvalade (Lisbon).
The fate has brought the teams together in the round of 16. How the teams played against each other, we'll discuss shortly. For now, I'll say that the Portuguese eventually finished second in their group in the Europa League and began the playoffs from the round of 32. In the opponents, the Lisbon team faced the players who were eliminated from the Champions League, Young Boys. After calmly defeating the Swiss on their territory (3-1), the lions allowed themselves to relax in the home leg and settled for a draw (1-1). In total, Sporting have played eight matches in the current Europa League campaign, scoring in each one, but conceding in seven of them while playing at home.
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Atalanta won the group in the Europa League and, unlike the Lisbon team, starts the playoffs directly from the round of 16. In addition to the Portuguese, the group with the Italians included Polish Raków Częstochowa, whom Bergamo's team defeated (2-0 and 4-0), as well as Austrian Sturm. And while Atalanta was stronger at home against them with a 1-0 victory, they dropped points away in the battle with the representatives of Graz - a 2-2 draw. Well, it's probably time to say that in both matches, Gasperini's team against Sporting comfortably played with both teams scoring. In Italy, a draw was recorded at 1-1, while in Lisbon, the Goddess proved stronger (2-1). This, in fact, predetermined who would take first place in the group and who would take second.
Twice in the current Europa League, the teams have already played at home. I think that for the third time, there will be an exchange of goals in the match between these opponents. Both teams are excellent in attack but far from perfect in defense. Even matches in national championships confirm this. Sporting in their last two matches in the Portuguese league first engaged in a shootout with Rio Ave (3-3) and then with Farense (3-2). Atalanta have also been both scoring and conceding a lot in Serie A lately: wins against Genoa (4-1) and Sassuolo (3-0), a draw with Milan (1-1), and defeats against Inter (0-4) and Bologna (1-2). I don't know if the lions can beat Bergamo's representatives for the third time, who seem to be on the decline now, but I expect at least one goal from each side in this match.
Prediction for the match: Both teams to score – yes.
