Arsenal travel to Lisbon to take on Sporting CP in the first leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal. The Gunners have seen their trophy hopes cut in half over the last two matches with losses to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and Southampton in the FA Cup Quarterfinal. Arsenal still have the two biggest trophies on offer, though — the Champions League and the Premier League.
Sporting are a strong side with plenty of attacking firepower. They overturned a 3-0 first leg deficit against Bodø/Glimt
with a dominating 5-0 win at home in the second leg. They’ve scored 72 goals this season in league play and boast a +55 goal differential, both of which are best in the Premiera Liga. They trail Porto for the top spot in the table by 5 points with a match in hand.
Rui Borges’ side play a counterattacking style, using quick transitions and long balls to stretch the pitch and get attackers in behind. Colombian striker Luis Suarez leads the club in scoring with 24 goals in 25 league games. Pedro Gonçalves has also scored double-digit goals (13) and Francisco Trincão pulls the strings (13 assists).
The two clubs have met seven times. Arsenal have gotten the better of Sporting overall (3-3-1), but the most consequential meetings saw the Portuguese side knock the Gunners out of the 2023 Europa League with a 2-2 draw at home and a win on penalties at the Emirates. The two sides met in the league phase last season — Arsenal won 5-1.
Arsenal need to right the ship. It isn’t time to panic, however. The last two matches will sting because they saw the club go out of two competitions, but it was the first time all season the Gunners failed to win in back-to-back matches. That’s wild, honestly. The Gunners made it until April without losing or drawing two matches in a row (or going loss-draw).
Mikel Arteta should have nearly his full complement of players available for selection, and it can’t have come at a better time. Mikel Merino is out for the season with his broken foot. Piero Hincapie is expected to miss a few weeks with his hamstring issue. Neither Bukayo Saka nor Jurrien Timber traveled with the squad. Saka is expected to be available for the weekend. Timber’s status is unclear.
Martin Ødegaard played about 60 minutes against Southampton and looked fit enough to meaningfully contribute going forward. Gabriel, who left that match with a slight knock, trained with the team on Monday. Ebere Eze, who has been dealing with a calf problem, returned to training as well. I’m taking the lack of reporting on Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka to mean that they are good to go as well.
Lineups will be posted when available.
WHO: Arsenal at Sporting CP
WHAT: Champions League Quarterfinal First Leg
WHERE: Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal
WHEN: Tuesday, April 7th 12:00 pm PT | 3:00 pm ET | 7:00 pm GMT
US TV: Streaming on Paramount+
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