Sporting CP vs Midtjylland LIVE STREAM (2/16/23): Watch UEFA Europa League online
Sporting CP meet Midtjylland in a UEFA Europa League match at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisboa, Portugal on Thursday 16 February 2023 (16/02/23).
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Here’s what you need to know:
What:UEFA Europa League
WHO: Sporting CP vs. Midtjylland
If: Thursday, February 16, 2023
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Where: Allianz Stadium
TV: N / A
Channel finder: Verizon Fios, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimal/Altice,cox, DIRECTTV,Court,Hello, fuboTV, loop.
Live broadcast: Outstanding+
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The Champions League returns to a very different European football scene on Tuesday than it was before a three-month mid-season break.
Meanwhile, Lionel Messi won his first World Cup. Kylian Mbappé almost won his second, then he got injured. The pre-season European champion favorites faltered at home.
Meanwhile, a standout team ahead of the World Cup, Napoli, have marched on and are aiming for their first quarter-final spot in the competition’s 68-year history.
Off the pitch, the Super League project that was trying to effectively kill the Champions League met a severe legal setback and English holders Manchester City are facing allegations of financial misconduct in the Premier League that could one day see the club dwindle could deter them from entering future Champions Leagues.
Too much drama adds up even before football’s most valuable club competition resumes with a stellar match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
A replay of the 2020 final won by Bayern brings together two forces that helped stop the Super League in 2021 by refusing to join. What was not to be expected at the Parc des Princes was the goalscorer and goalkeeper with the best tally from the group stage.
Mbappé, who scored seven goals in five different Champions League games in the autumn, was set to miss most of February with a hamstring injury. He surprisingly returned to training on Sunday.
Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer’s season is over because he broke his leg skiing while on vacation after Germany’s quick exit from the World Cup.
Tuesday’s other game meets AC Milan and Tottenham, two of the seven round of 16 teams currently not in Champions League qualification in their domestic leagues. Chelsea are different and visit Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday when Club Brugge host Benfica.
Four more first legs are scheduled for February 21-22.
MESSI QUEST
At 35, Messi finally has a world title for Argentina. Now back to the business of winning a fifth Champions League.
When Messi won his fourth title with Barcelona in 2015, Barack Obama was President, Britain was in the European Union and Jose Mourinho won a league title with Chelsea.
Messi has not been in the final since then and his first attempt with PSG ended in the Round of 16 against Madrid. When he last faced Bayern, it was an 8-2 loss to Barcelona in the quarter-finals with one leg of the pandemic-hit 2020 edition.
Both PSG and Bayern have failed since the World Cup. PSG were undefeated at the beginning of 2023, then lost three league games and are eliminated from the French Cup. Bayern still lead the Bundesliga with three straight draws after the restart.
TEAMS IN IDEAS
There is a Champions League saying that the team you draw after the group stage is not always the one you face in February.
When the round of 16 draw was held on 7 November, Real Madrid were unbeaten leaders in Spain, coupled with an already fickle Liverpool. Madrid have now lost three out of eight, leaving Barcelona a dominant lead.
At least second-placed Madrid are ahead of fifth in La Liga so far to be almost certain of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Not so, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. Neither do AC Milan, Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt and Club Brugge. Neither is currently on track to qualify for next season’s competition.
For Liverpool and Chelsea, European champions in 2019 and 2021, another final win in Istanbul on 10 June could be their best chance of qualifying for August’s group stage draw. That should be worth around 100 million euros in prize money from UEFA.
That money seems almost essential to Chelsea now after a season of lavish transfer spending, signed by American owner Todd Boehly.
Chelsea play a team from Dortmund in the Bundesliga, just three points behind Bayern without looking as convincing title contenders so far.
HALLER’S RETURN
Dortmund already has a big comeback story: Sébastien Haller’s return after cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy.
Haller was due to make his European debut for Dortmund eight months ago since becoming the club’s marquee as a replacement for Erling Haaland in the summer.
Haaland scored five goals for Manchester City in the group, including the 2-1 home win over Dortmund. He has to wait another week to return to Germany for the first leg against Leipzig.
DARK HORSES
Napoli and Benfica topped their groups in November – ahead of Liverpool and PSG respectively – to be seeded in the draw and avoid the likes of Madrid, Bayern and Man City. Napoli travel to Eintracht Frankfurt on February 21 and Benfica travel to Bruges on Wednesday.
Both are set for national titles after strong returnees from the World Cup break. Could an elusive Champions League title follow? Benfica haven’t been European champions since 1962, Napoli never came close.
However, Napoli mostly stayed out of the January trade, while Benfica sold Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea for a British record fee of around 120 million euros ($128 million).
Benfica should have enough to eliminate Brugge, who manager Carl Hoefkens sacked in December after poor domestic results despite above-average performance in the Champions League. Brugge signed Scott Parker, whose last game in August was lost 9-0 to Bournemouth at Liverpool.
SUPER LEAGUE?
In November, Barcelona and Juventus failed to get out of the Champions League groups as they and fellow Super League rebel Madrid awaited news of their legal challenge from UEFA at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
The court’s first non-binding opinion in December was to contradict the clubs’ claim that UEFA had monopoly control over European competitions. The final verdict from 15 judges is expected in weeks.
Barcelona are now at the top of La Liga and are having an excellent match with Manchester United in the Europa League knockout playoffs this week.
Juventus, who host Nantes in the Europa League on Thursday, have other problems – a 15-point deduction in Serie A during a criminal probe into alleged mis-accounting that led to the resignation of the board.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
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Ryan Novozinsky can be reached at [email protected].