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Sporting Lisbon v Manchester City, Thursday 18:00, ITV4.


Having triumphed against Porto in the previous round, Manchester City now return to Portugal to take on Sporting Lisbon.

In theory, this should be a much simpler task for Roberto Mancini's side. While Porto are top of the Portuguese League and now just 1.38 to retain their title after a crucial win at Benfica last Friday, Sporting are 14 points adrift after yet another underwhelming season.

So underwhelming, in fact, that their current boss Ricardo Sa Pinto, a former captain of the club, has been in charge for less than a month after the departure of Domingos Pacienca, who reached the final of this competition last year with Braga. However, since Sa Pinto's arrival, relatively little has changed in terms of team selection.

One of the features of Sporting's play is to push the full-backs, Emiliano Insua and Joao Pereira (though Santiago Arias has got a couple of chances since Sa Pinto took charge) very high up the pitch. Cover, of sorts, is provided by Daniel Carriço sitting just ahead of the back four - as a converted centre-back, he rarely moves from his position and allows the full-backs to push on.

The actual centre-backs are slow, however. First choices are Oguchi Onyewu, who can be dragged out of position easily and often doesn't have the capacity to recover, while Anderson Polga is now 33 and was never quick. Onyewu is unavailable, though, and likely replacement Xandao is a little more mobile, which may help Sporting.

This will probably be an area Roberto Mancini looks to exploit, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Mario Balotelli starting upfront rather than Edin Dzeko, despite the Bosnian being rested for the weekend win over Bolton. That's the way City played at Porto, and with Balotelli's pace and mobility in the channels, I think he'll be a good bet to score first at around 7.5 if he starts.

In midfield, Sporting are likely to be without energetic midfielder Elias and the conservative Fabian Rinaudo, so Dutchman Stijn Schaars will get through a lot of running, especially if enigmatic playmaker Mati Fernandez is handed a rare start - he's a temperamental but highly talented classic South American number ten.

In this zone, Mancini will want to be solid and combative. Yaya Toure is suspended, so it looks like Nigel de Jong will sit and Gareth Barry will stay to his left, and leave the attacking to the wide players. Mancini wants a decent amount of possession in continental competition, and David Silva and Samir Nasri has been his favoured combination in in Europe so far - those two have both started in seven of City's eight Europa League games.

Alternatively, one could move into a central playmaking role and Adam Johnson or James Milner could come in on the flank, but Sergio Aguero behind Balotelli is a good combination worth using here.

Upfront, Sporting are without Dutch wonderkid Ricky van Wolfswinkel, and therefore will play Sebastian Ribas upfront. He's a new arrival and hasn't scored for 18 months, so shouldn't be a huge threat.

The danger will come from wide - to a certain extent on the Sporting right, where Marat Izmailov will have a good battle with Gael Clichy, but the real concern for City is in their right-back zone. Not only will they be up against tricky Spanish winger Diego Capel, they're also without both Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta due to injury. Kolo Toure is the natural option there, though Milner could also do a job.

Either way, it might be worth looking out for City's right-back in the bookings market - Capel isn't the trickest, but he loves to knock the ball past defenders and use his pace to get in behind.

Overall, though, City are the deserved favourites for this game. I can imagine them going into an early lead and being content with it, keeping possession to kill the game in the second half. Therefore, I'm going to back City to be ahead at both half time and full time, at 3.0.

Recommended bets:
Back Balotelli to score first at 7.5
Back Man City / Man City in Half Time / Full Time at 3.0

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