UEFA Europa League
On Thursday night, Sporting CP host Youngs Boys at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in the Europa League knockout round play-offs second leg. The Portuguese team are big favourites to progress after a 3-1 first leg victory in Switzerland.
Sporting on a rollThe home team extended their winning run to five games in all competitions with a 2-0 victory at Moreirense, boosting their title hopes in the process. The win means that the Portuguese team has now won 13 of their last 14 matches in all competitions.
Ruben Amorim’s team has been deadly in front of goal lately, scoring at least twice in 15 of their last 16 competitive outings. At the other end of the pitch, Sporting has also conceded just one goal in their previous five matches.
The first-leg victory continued a strong recent run for Sporting in the Europa League, as they are now unbeaten in their last five games in the competition.
Young Boys were back to winning ways last time outThe Swiss visitors recovered from the first-leg defeat by recording a narrow 1-0 home win over Stade-Lausanne-Ouchy at the weekend. In truth, Young Boys' recent form has been inconsistent, although they have faced some difficult opponents.
The Swiss team dropped out of the Champions League, and the first leg was the first time they had featured in the competition since 2021.
Their record in the Europa League is not a good one, though, as they have now suffered three straight defeats in the competition, having conceded at least two goals in each defeat.Young Boys has a mixed recent away record in the competition, although they have claimed just two wins from their last 16 matches on the road.
What am I backing?Sporting was too good for their Swiss opponents in the first leg, and I am backing the home side to record a relatively comfortable victory in this encounter, too.
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