The current Swiss Super League leaders Young Boys may have fallen from the Champions League group stage into this UEFA Europa League knockout play-off tie, but despite that, they’ll still feel confident of advancing against Sporting Lisbon thanks to their recent solid form. Despite three times squandering the lead over the weekend to eventually draw 3-3 with Lugano, the hosts have still lost just two of their last 11 competitive outings (W7, D2).
With the first result in that streak coming in the form of a 2-0 home win over Crvena Zvezda in Champions league group stage action, the current Swiss champions have enjoyed home comforts overall this term, avoiding defeat in 13 of their 15 competitive home matches (W11, D2). That said, both of those defeats came in European competition, whilst a prior four-match winless run against Portuguese opposition (D2, L2) points towards a difficult match-up here.
The tie seemingly becomes even more challenging when you note that Sporting Lisbon arrive here after winning 11 of their last 12 outings across all competitions (L1), a run that has moved them into second spot in the Portuguese top-flight. The visitors did fail to win their Europa League group though, so a second consecutive appearance in the UEL knockout round play-offs remains their route to European success.
At this stage last campaign, Sporting soundly beat Danish outfit Midtjylland 5-1 on aggregate, a success story that they’ll be desperate to replicate this term, but this first leg represents another tough challenge given they have won just one of their prior four away European outings (D2, L1). The visitors can at least fall back on their nine wins in 16 European matches against Swiss opposition (D3, L4), having only taken more wins against Dutch (12) and English (10) outfits across their European history.
Players to watch: Young Boys’ Joël Monteiro has netted six competitive goals this season with five coming on home soil, whilst his side have won on each of his five goalscoring appearances. At the weekend, Sporting’s Viktor Gyökeres took his seasonal tally to 27 goals in 29 matches across all competitions, nine of which have served as match openers.
Hot stat: Both teams have scored just once across Sporting’s last seven competitive matches.
