Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon prediction
Arsenal play against Sporting Lisbon in the second leg of the Round of 16 of Europa League. The game kicks off on March 16 at the Emirates Stadium in London. The home side have had a great season. They can get the title of the English champions for the first time in ten years. Arsenal are one of the favourites of Europa League too. Experts believe in the English side in the upcoming game. The Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon odds (prior to the first leg match) are the following: 1.35-1.45 for Arsenal to advance to the next round and 2.85-2.90 for Sporting to advance to the next round.
The Portuguese side has good morality. The team lost only once in 8 games in February and the beginning of March. It happened in the game versus Porto in their domestic championship.
Here are our Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon tips.
Arsenal preview
The London team finished the Europa League group stage at the top of the table with 5 wins in six games. The only team to beat Arsenal was PSV that finally took the second place. Most of the games involving Arsenal at the group stage didn’t see many goals scored. Final goal difference was 8:3.
The English side is currently first in the Premier League several points ahead of Manchester City. The beginning of February saw Arsenal having problems as the team couldn’t win 4 games in a row (1 draw, 3 defeats). Arsenal was eliminated from the FA Cup after losing to Manchester City (0:1). However, Mikel Arteta and others managed to overcome the crisis. A series of 4 wins followed with aggregate score of 12:4.
Sporting Lisbon preview
Sporting were drawn for the Europa League play-offs after being eliminated from the Champions League (third place in their group). Sporting were behind Tottenham Hotspur and Eintracht Frankfurt, one point ahead of Marseille though. In the previous Europa League round the Portuguese side beat Danish Midtjylland on aggregate (1:1 in the home game and 4:0 away).
Sporting are currently fourth in the Portuguese championship, almost ten points behind the second place that allows to qualify to the Champions League directly. Their current position only gives them a chance to get to the Conference League. The team isn’t likely to lose this position though. They keep on taking points, as of the beginning of March the teams has a series of six wins in their last seven games.
Betting tips Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon
With all due respect to the Portuguese side, they have little chance to beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Our Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon prediction is based on the fact that the English side rarely concedes goals in home games. For example, Arsenal didn’t concede a goal in London at the Europa League group stage.
Besides, Arsenal and Sporting Lisbon had two head-to-head games in Europa League. The Portuguese side never scored a goal (0:1 and 0:0). We assume that Sporting won’t be able to score this time either. Our tip for this game is Sporting Lisbon Under 0.5.