Sporting vs Manchester City Champions League round of 16 preview: Where to watch, predicted line-ups, squad changes

Sporting CP and Manchester City meet in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg on Tuesday 15 February.

Where to watch Sporting vs Man. City on TV

Fans can find their local UEFA Champions League broadcast partner(s) here.

What do you need to know?

Sporting have their work cut out. City continue to go from strength to strength this season and look to be on a mission to go one stage further in this competition than they managed when they reached the final last term. Josep Guardiola has key players coming to the boil just when he needs them most as well as the luxury of a cushion at the top of the Premier League.

Starting line-ups

Sporting: Adán; Ricardo Esgaio, Coates, Gonçalo Inácio; Pedro Porro, João Palhinha, Matheus Nunes, Mathues Reis; Sarabia, Paulinho, Pedro Gonçalves

Man. City: Ederson; Stones , Rúben Dias, Laporte, João Cancelo; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Foden, Sterling

Form guide

Sporting
Since Matchday 6 (all competitions, most recent first): DWWWWLWWLWWWWW
Where they stand: 2nd in Liga, Portuguese Cup semi-finals, League Cup winners

Man. City
Since Matchday 6: WWWDWWWWWWWW
Where they stand: 1st in Premier League, FA Cup fifth round

Expert predictions

Carlos Machado, Sporting reporter
Sporting will go into this game in a position they enjoy and one familiar from the group stage – as clear underdogs with the pressure off. Even so, they have already shown themselves to be competitive and consistent, and will surely prove tough opponents for Manchester City, who will doubtless remember being knocked out of the Europa League by the Lions in 2011/12.

Matthew Howarth, Man. City reporter
Guardiola may insist his City side "are not the best in the world", but few would be surprised to see last season's beaten finalists go one better this term. The Premier League pacesetters will be expected to brush Sporting aside, but there is room for improvement for Guardiola's team in Europe, having lost two of their three away games in Group A. They are also yet to keep a clean sheet in the competition this season.

What the coaches say

Rúben Amorim, Sporting CP coach: "Our tactics could change. We have several players who can play in different positions. When we look at City, we realise that we cannot manipulate our team to cover all the spaces because they change. We will try to impose ourselves on the game. We're not going to change anything about our identity."

Josep Guardiola, Man. City manager: "We have had an incredible run but, especially, we have behaved well. In Leipzig [on Matchday 6] we weren't ready mentally after already qualifying, but the rest [of the campaign] was good. I say every day, we compete for ourselves. Every three days. We've done that for the past years, and we will do that again tomorrow."

Squad changes

Sporting
In: Marcus Edwards, Islam Slimani
Out: Jovane Cabral, Geny Catamo

Man. City
In: Kayky
Out: Ferran Torres