Arsenal head to Portugal for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal against Sporting CP on Tuesday, having seen their quadruple dream go up in smoke in their last two games.
Mikel Arteta’s side lost in the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City before the international break, and in their first game back, were knocked out of the FA Cup, following a 2-1 defeat to Championship side Southampton.
Arsenal do have some uncertainties ahead of their trip to Portugal over the fitness of some of their key players. Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka weren’t even in the squad for the Southampton game, after they’d pulled out of the England squad during the international break with fitness concerns.
Centre-back Gabriel Magalhães had to be taken off in the Southampton match after suffering an apparent knee injury. Arteta, therefore, has his task cut out, with those uncertainties and the need to bring confidence back into his players following the last two games.
Sporting, meanwhile, are on a three-game winning streak. Their last loss came lost in the Champions League round of 16, when they lost 3-0 to Bodo/Glimt in the first leg. They turned that tie around spectacularly, with a 5-0 win in the second leg.
Like Arsenal, Sporting are also in a title race domestically. As it stands, they sit five points behind Porto in second place, but Sporting do have a game in hand.
Here’s everything you need to know about this quarterfinal first leg.
How to watch:
The match will be shown on TNT Sports in the UK, Paramount+ in the U.S., SonyLIV in India and Stan Sport in Australia. You can also follow ESPN’s live updates.
Key Details:
Kick-off time: Tuesday, April 7 at 8 p.m. BST (3 p.m. ET; 12:30 a.m. IST, Wednesday and 5 a.m. AEST, Wednesday).
Venue: Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon
Referee: TBC
VAR: TBC
Injury and Team News:
Sporting CP
Nuno Santos, F: hamstring, OUT
Fotis Ioannidis, F: knee, OUT
Geovany Quenda, F: foot, DOUBT
Luis Guilherme, F: strain, DOUBT
Arsenal
Gabriel Magalhães, D: knee, DOUBT
Piero Hincapié, D: muscle, DOUBT
Eberechi Eze, M: calf, OUT
Mikel Merino, M: foot, OUT
Talking Points:
Will Arsenal put recent defeats behind them?
The Carabao Cup defeat was perhaps the worst way to head into the international break for Arsenal, but they followed that up with an even worse result — going out of the FA Cup with a limp loss to Southampton.
Of course, the likes of David Raya, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka could well be back in the starting lineup for this game, which would be a boost for Arsenal, but it’s not a stretch to say that this is now a squad that might need a positive result to restore some confidence.
Arsenal still could make this an excellent season in the next couple of months, but they need to dust themselves off quickly after the two most recent outings. The north London side weren’t at the races against Southampton, even if that may be put down to the number of players that were missing.
If those players do come back for this game against Sporting, Arteta will expect his side to return to winning ways.
Gyökeres returns to Lisbon full of confidence
After a sensational 2024-25 season with Sporting, Viktor Gyökeres returns to his old stomping ground in perhaps the best phase of his season so far.
Last week, Gyökeres scored the winner against Poland to help Sweden qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and he also scored Arsenal’s only goal in that awful result at St. Mary’s against Southampton. The striker has scored three times in his last four Premier League games, and four times in his last six appearances for Arsenal.
He’s a player in form — Sporting know exactly what he’s all about, and how they deal with him could well decide the fate of this tie.
Sporting can take confidence from round of 16 comeback
Make no mistake, Sporting head into this tie as big underdogs. It’s a different situation from their round of 16 tie against Bodo/Glimt, where they were arguably the favorites to progress, despite the Norwegian club’s giant-killing acts this season. Sporting were on the ropes in that tie, but the way they turned it around in front of their fans in Lisbon ought to fill them with confidence.
Whatever the stature of the teams, to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit takes serious gumption, spirit and quality. Sporting displayed that in abundance. Arsenal won’t defend as deep as Bodo/Glimt did, nor will they let Sporting have as much of the ball as the Norwegian club did.
However, there are enough players in the Sporting ranks, particularly in attack, who can hurt Arsenal, especially the form the Arsenal defence finds itself in.
Arsenal risk season derailing
If the result of this first leg doesn’t go their way, it will be three games without a win for Arsenal, a run which would mount the pressure on Arteta and his players towards the business end of this season.
They are nine points ahead of City in the Premier League, even though Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand, and they’ve been near-flawless in the Champions League so far as well.
However, if Arsenal don’t finish their season well, all their good work so far will count for nothing. Arteta’s Arsenal reign so far has been characterised by some slip-ups in the month of April, most notably in 2023, when they let a lead slip away in the Premier League, to City.
Even in 2024, their run-in was near-flawless in the Premier League, but the one loss that defined the title race came in April.
Arteta has work to do to ensure that this April doesn’t see another Arsenal season limp towards its climax.
What do the numbers say?
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Arsenal are unbeaten against Sporting CP, winning two and drawing three of the five games the sides have played against each other.
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The last time these two sides met in a European knockout tie, Sporting eliminated Arsenal from the 2022-23 Europa League, in a penalty shootout.
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In the most recent clash between the two sides, Arsenal beat Sporting 5-1 in Portugal in the league phase of last season’s Champions League.
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Sporting have only won two of their last 13 games against English opposition.
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English clubs have won each of the last ten European knockout ties against Portuguese opposition.