Atletico Madrid vs Sporting Lisbon Match Preview

The Europa League has reached its Quarter-finals stage and that means we are down to the last eight teams who are bidding to not only lift European silverware, but should they need it also be presented with a backdoor entry to next season’s Champions League.

Favourites to win the tournament Atletico Madrid will return to Europe’s premier club competition next season by virtue of finishing in the top four in La Liga, so they will not require the additional prize that is offered when lifting this trophy.

That said this competition takes on no lesser an importance for Diego Simeone’s men as they will look to repeat the success of 2012 when they beat compatriots Athletic Bilbao in the final by a score line of three goals to nil.

Standing in their way of progress to the final four are Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon and with their current third place standing in their domestic league then winning this competition would be incredibly appealing to them.

Because Portugal will only have two representatives’ in next season’s Champions League, it means that if Jorge Jesus’ squad fail to break the duopoly between rivals FC Porto and Benfica they will once again have to make do with appearing in the Europa League next season.

However, this will not be the case should Sporting Lisbon win the trophy then they will be parachuted into the Champions League for the 2018/19 campaign. That said they are going to have their work cut out if they are to do so.

The fact that they’ve been paired with Atletico Madrid will have been something of a disappointment as they will go into this tie as underdogs with Diego Simeone’s group of players providing a real challenge over the course of this week and next.

Atletico Madrid have done their best to run Barcelona close in La Liga but try as they might the Catalan outfit have been head and shoulders above the rest, therefore they have had to make do with being first in the chasing pack.

They can at least take solace in the fact that they are having a better domestic season then that of their crosstown rivals Real Madrid. Although that might be a point that is nullified should Zinedine Zidane lead his side to a third Champions League success in a row.

We could well see a situation where the top two trophies of European football are won by Madrid based clubs, Atletico come into this game off the back of a slender league win over Deportivo last Sunday with Kevin Gamiero’s penalty being the only goal of the game.

While Sporting Lisbon make the trip to the Spanish capital having not had the best of preparations after losing to Braga last Friday. They suffered a 1-0 win away defeat while also ending the game with just 10 men.

The hosts are never that generous in terms of giving away goals and Forebet predicts Atletico to win in front of their own fans.