Man City Sporting Lisbon Odds : Mancini looking for improvement in Europa League
Manchester City will be determined to turn around their Europa League last 16 tie with Sporting Lisbon this week when they host the Portuguese club on Thursday evening, but the 11/1 on offer for Ricardo Sa Pinto’s side is sure to attract plenty of interest.
Roberto Mancini’s men trail 1-0 from the first-leg and in the week that they sacrificed first position in the Premier League after defeat to Swansea City, they will want to make sure they progress in Europe.
Despite the defeat in the first-leg – and their failure to get an away goal – they will still be favourites to do just that.
This is for one reason above all others – their tremendous home form.
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In the Premier League, City have won every single home game this season, while in Europe they have dropped points just once – a home draw with Napoli back in September 2011.
With the Etihad Stadium crowd firmly behind them, City will be confident of causing Sporting problems from the very first whistle. They need their supreme attacking talent to turn on the style.
There is always the chance that Sporting could grab an away goal of course, but City should look to cancel this out with a comfortably win that they are more than capable of achieving.
Their last four home games has seen them score 12 times without conceding and more of the same is needed on Thursday.
As for Sporting, they were delighted with their first-leg win against the then Premier League leaders and they will be determined to complete the job in Manchester.
They will be aware of the tough challenge ahead though as Porto – who are top of the league in Portugal – were hammered 4-0 at City in the last round.
Looking at their form since victory in the first-leg, Sporting have only had one game, but this saw them hammer Vitória Guimarães 5-0, so they are confident and in-form right now, no doubt about that.
They have also kept a clean sheet in five of their last six games and continuing this trend will see them progress to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
Overall, City have plenty of work to do against a decent Sporting side, but their home form makes them favourites to progress. It should be an entertaining one from 8.05pm on Thursday evening.
