Champions League Preview: Sporting CP - Fiorentina

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Sporting Clube de Portugal will look to break their duck against Italian sides when they welcome Fiorentina to Lisbon for the first leg of their Champions League play-off.

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Sporting Lisbon

Squad

Goalkeepers: Rui Patricio, Tiago.

Defenders: Daniel Carrico, Anderson Polga, Pedro Silva, Marco Caneira, Tonel, Leandro Grimi, André Marques, Abel.

Midfielders: Fabio Rochemback, Simon Vukcevic, Matias Fernandez, Miguel Veloso, Bruno Pereirinha, Joao Moutinho.

Strikers: Liedson, Helder Postiga, Yannick Djalo, Felipe Caicedo, Carlos Saleiro.

Possible formation (4-3-3): Rui Patricio; Abel, Polga, Carrico, André Marques; Fernandez, Veloso, Moutinho; Djalo, Liedson, Helder Postiga.

Fiorentina

Squad

Goalkeepers: Sebastien Frey, Vlada Avramov.

Defenders: Gianluca Comotto, Dario Dainelli, Alessandro Gamberini, Per Kroldrup, Cesare Natali, Juan Vargas, Manuel Pasqual.

Midfielders: Marco Donadel, Mario Santana, Riccardo Montolivo, Stevan Jovetic, Martin Jorgensen, Massimo Gobbi, Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Marco Marchionni, Cristiano Zanetti.

Strikers: Adrian Mutu, Alberto Gilardino, Andrea Seculin, Samuel Di Carmine, Khouma Babacar.

Possible formation (4-3-1-2): Frey; Comotto, Dainelli, Gamberini, Vargas; Kuzmanovic, Montolivo, Zanetti; Santana; Mutu, Gilardino.


PLAYERS TO WATCH

Liedson (Sporting)

The 31-year-old striker has become a Sporting legend since joining the club in 2003. He has become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in European competitions, and has made over 200 appearances in total for the club. In 2005 and 2007 he ended up as top scorer of the Portuguese league, in which he has scored a total of 102 goals in 168 appearences. It’s somewhat surprising that he has never been called up by either his birth nation Brazil or Portugal, the country where he found his place as a footballer.

Adrian Mutu (Fiorentina)

Even though Alberto Gilardino ended up as Fiorentina’s top scorer in Serie A last season with 19 goals, Mutu remains undoubtedly the Viola’s most dangerous and skilful player. In this match, it will be interesting to see how the Romanian star reacts after the recent controversy surrounding the €17 million fine he has been given by his former employers Chelsea because of his cocaine use a few years back.


PREDICTION

Sporting may get back to winning ways, but the result will still give the Viola good hope of making it through in the second leg.

Sporting 2-1 Fiorentina
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