Sporting narrowly beat Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen 1-0 in the last qualifying round and find themselves paired with Austrian outfit LASK in the playoffs. These two sides know each other very well, having clashed in the Europa League group stage last season.
Sporting have only played one league game so far this season and will be aiming to reclaim their position as the third-best side in Portugal. Last season, Sporting finished in fourth spot due to Braga overtaking them on the final day of the campaign.
Recovery practice ✅#SportingCP pic.twitter.com/O6P68Hu8bz— Sporting CP English (@SportingCP_en) September 28, 2020
Recovery practice ✅#SportingCP pic.twitter.com/O6P68Hu8bz
Sporting lost full-back Marcos Acuna and winger Matheus Pereira in the summer but managed to bring in the likes of Vitorino Antunes and Antonio Adan on free transfers. Pedro Goncalves, Zouhair Feddal, and Nuno Santos have all been brought in for a total of around £10m, and full-back Pedro Porro has joined on-loan from Man City.
The Portuguese club won 12 of their 17 home games last season, only drawing once, suggesting that Thursday’s tie is unlikely to go all the way to penalties. The hosts only failed to score in 12% of their home games and kept clean sheets in 53%, so LASK will have their work cut out form them in this playoff tie.
LASK are unbeaten in the Austrian Bundesliga so far this season, securing 7pts from their opening three matches. The Austrians cruised into the playoffs with a 7-0 win at home to DAC Dunajska Streda and will be confident of progressing to the group stage. LASK’s squad hasn’t changed much from last season, so similar levels will be expected of them this season.
Last season, LASK finished fourth in the Championship group of the Austrian Bundesliga, just 3pts behind runners-up Rapid Wien. LASK qualified for the Europa League last season and made it all the way through to the last 16 before being knocked-out by Man Utd. The Austrians picked up wins against Sporting, PSV, and Rosenborg during the group stage before knocking out AZ, so they aren’t here just to make up the numbers.
LASK score more goals on the road last season (35) than they did at home (32) and even conceded fewer on their travels (15) than they did in their own backyard (22). The Austrians also scored in all of their away games in the Bundesliga and only failed to score in one of their five trips away from home in the Europa League.
We believe that this game really could go either way as LASK proved they can mix it with the established European sides last season. Despite losing to LASK 3-0 in Austria, Sporting did claim a 2-1 win when the pair locked horns in Portugal last season.
We could have another close and competitive 90-minutes on our hands and believe that both teams will score on Thursday.