We have all eight of the Europa League round of 16 second leg matches this weekend including the meeting between Arsenal and Sporting Club.
The game will be played at the Emirates Stadium on the 16th of March and the hosts are currently top of the English Premier League while the visitors are 4th in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
🌍 We’ve beaten teams from nine different countries under Mikel – England, Greece, Austria, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Czechia, Switzerland and the Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/F7VR8zq9aU— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 14, 2023
🌍 We’ve beaten teams from nine different countries under Mikel – England, Greece, Austria, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Czechia, Switzerland and the Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/F7VR8zq9aU
Arsenal come into the game having recorded a comfortable 3-0 win at Fulham in the Premier League last weekend.
It looked a tough fixture on paper for The Gunners but Fulham were well below their best and Arsenal breezed into a 3-0 lead by half time. Arsenal defended their lead well in the second half to take maximum points.
That win means Arsenal are undefeated in their last 6 matches in all competitions, winning 5 of those fixtures.
The wins have all come in the Premier League at Aston Villa, Leicester City, and Fulham plus at home to Everton and Bournemouth. The only game Arsenal failed to win was the first leg of this tie in Portugal and it finished 2-2.
Trends show Arsenal are undefeated in 6 of their last 7 Europa League fixtures. They have won each of their last 3 home Europa League games and have kept a clean sheet in all 3 of those victories.
In fact, Arsenal have not conceded a goal in their 4 most recent home Europa League matches.
Sporting travel to London having defeated Boavista 3-0 at home in the Primeira Liga on the weekend. It took just 17 minutes for Sporting to open the scoring and they added a second goal shortly before half time. All 3 points were secured with a third goal at the end of the game.
The victory over Boavista means Sporting are undefeated in their last 7 fixtures in all competitions. There have been wins at home over Estoril and Boavista in the Primeira Liga plus away wins in the Portuguese league over Chaves and Portimonense.
Sporting beat Midtjylland 4-0 away in the Europa League playoffs having been held to a 1-1 draw at home in the first leg.
Trends show Sporting are undefeated in 4 of their last 5 games in the Europa League. However, they have lost 3 of their last 5 Europa League matches on the road and have kept only 2 clean sheets in their 7 most recent away trips in the competition.
Team news and Arsenal are expected to be without midfielder Mohamed Elneny who has a knee injury. There are also doubts over the fitness of striker Eddie Nketiah.
Sporting are without the injured trio of Antonio Adan, Hector Bellerin, and Daniel Bragança.
Mikel Arteta make choose to make some changes to his regular starting XI, as he did in the first leg. However, Arsenal should still have too much for the Portuguese visitors and a single goal could be enough to see the English club through to the quarter final.