Everything you need to know about Sporting CP | Feature | News

After a four-month hiatus, our Europa League journey continues with a trip to Lisbon to face Portuguese powerhouses Sporting CP on Thursday.

Mikel Arteta and our players will take on the 19-time national champions, who have saved some of their best performances this season for European nights, at the Estadio Jose Alvalade for the first leg of our round of 16 game.

Ahead of Thursday’s game, here’s everything you need to know about our opponents:

The history

Sporting, the third most successful club in Portuguese football with 54 major awards, was founded in 1906 by Jose Avalade, after whom their stadium is named. Six years after they first played in the top flight, they won their first championship in 1935.

In a golden period between 1947 and 1954, the Lions won seven out of eight league titles and the following year saw Partizan Belgrade in their first European Cup game. In 1964 they clinched their only continental title to date, beating MTK Budapest and winning the final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Regular successes dried up for the rest of the century, but in 2000 they ended an 18-year wait for a league title, followed by a double in 2002. But then an even longer drought began, ending only in 2021. They secured their 19th place .Primeira Liga title.

The stadium

After Portugal was awarded the rights to host Euro 2004, construction of the Estadio Jose Alvalade began in 2001 on the site of the former Sporting site of the same name and was completed two years later.

The new 50,095-capacity home opened in August 2003 when Sporting hosted Manchester United in a friendly that brought Cristiano Ronaldo to the attention of the Red Devils, who quickly snapped him up. As well as playing five games at Euro 2004, it was the venue for the 2005 UEFA Cup Final, where the Lions were denied lifting the trophy on home soil by CSKA Moscow.

During Covid-19, as a neutral venue, it has hosted the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Champions League in behind-closed-doors matches, while the Portuguese national team regularly play their home games there.

The manager

Ruben Amorim was appointed manager in March 2020, having previously enjoyed a successful playing career by representing Portugal at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups while being part of a Benfica side that won three league titles during his time there.

After retiring in 2017, he oversaw Casa Pia and Braga B in the third division before rising to Braga’s top job in December 2019. He quickly won the Portuguese League Cup and was poached by Sporting after just 13 games.

In his first full season in charge, he was beaten just once in La Liga to end a 19-year title wait and also won another League Cup. Last year he led the Lions to the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time since 2009 and sealed their third consecutive League Cup success to continue Sporting’s rejuvenation.

The group

The most recognizable face of all the Gooners will be Hector Bellerin, who will get an opportunity to return to the Emirates Stadium next week after leaving for Barcelona last summer. The right-back is currently on loan to Portugal from the Catalan giants, for whom he only played seven games before joining on deadline day.

Former Tottenham youngster Marcus Edwards scored against Spurs earlier this season in the Champions League, one of 10 goals to his name this term. The winger also scored against us for Vitoria in the 2019 Europa League, in a game we won 3-2.

Liverpool captain and former defender Sebastian Coates has played over 250 games for the Lions and was a member of Uruguay’s squad for the 2022 World Cup along with defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte, while Hidemasa Morita is a Japanese teammate of Takehiro Tomiyasu.

After playing for Wolves in the Premier League last season, Francisco Trincao arrived on loan from Barcelona last summer, while experienced shot-stopper Antonio Adan represented both Real and Atletico Madrid. The goals come from Pedro Goncalves, who is this season’s top scorer with 16.

The season so far

Over the past 12 months, a transfer crackdown on Sporting has seen a number of star names depart. In the summer, Matheus Nunes moved to Wolves, Nuno Mendes to PSG and Joao Palhinha joined Fulham for a combined £83million, while Ruben Vinagre and Pedro Porro joined Everton and Tottenham respectively on loan in January – both after spending months in Lisbon.

This instability has affected Sporting. After a poor start, they won only once in their first four league games, so they have had to catch up since September. They currently lie fourth behind runaway leaders and city rivals Benfica, as well as Porto and Braga. However, they have won six of their last seven league games to build some momentum.

Their latest defeat brought them their third consecutive League Cup after losing 2-0 to Porto in the final at the end of January, but their European form has been more promising. They won their first two Champions League group games against Tottenham and Eintracht Frankfurt but would eventually go behind them in the Europa League, where they defeated FC Midtjylland 5-1 on aggregate after an impressive 4-0 second leg win in Denmark .

Our previous meetings

This is the third time that we have entered a European competition with Sporting. The first came in the 1969/70 season when we drew 0-0 away before a goal from John Radford and a brace from George Graham saw us through our successful Fairs Cup run.

We then played two group games in the Europa League in 2018 – Danny Welbeck’s goal secured us victory at Estadio Jose Alvalade before a 0-0 draw at Emirates Stadium secured us a place in the knockout stages.