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One of the best and most anticipated matches of the night in the Champions League playoffs will see Sporting Lisbon protecting a 2-1 first leg advantage when they travel to Moscow for the second match of the tie against CSKA.
The 1-2 result in the first leg was not so bad for CSKA, as they now need only one goal at home to advance, if they manage to keep a clean sheet. The problem however is that CSKA hasn`t exactly been able to keep clean sheets this season – actually Sparta Prague netted 4 goals against them in the previous Champions League tie and offense was the only thing that saved today`s hosts. On the other hand, the Russians are in excellent form, winning all their matches so far in the domestic league and topping the table with 18 points in 6 rounds.
Sporting needed a late goal to get the win in Portugal and CSKA Moscow missed a penalty, but the Lisbon side fully deserved that win, creating a lot of chances and being the aggressor for the whole match. Even if Sporting drew 1-1 with Pacos in Portugal over the weekend, the visitors have an excellent squad and they will surely make some noise this season in all competitions – offense being the main weapon for them.
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Team news: Expect CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon to field similar lineups with the ones that took the court in the first leg. Each of the two teams opted to field pretty much the strongest lineup over the weekend, which was a bit of a surprise – as one would have expected for focus to be entirely on Champions League qualification.
Both these sides like to play attacking football and the first match was excellent, we could have easily seen something like a 3-2 scoreline instead of 2-1. CSKA has now scored at least once in the last 14 competitive matches, but they also conceded a lot of goals this season. Sporting is in a similar situation, scoring at least once in the last 18 matches and, like CSKA, also conceding at least once in most of these games.
Even if the two teams could be a little more cautious than usual considering the stakes, it`s really hard to see any of the two sides going scoreless. We can expect a nice rhythm, like in the first leg, nice, fast paced football and eventually the end result should see both teams active on the scoreboard at least once.
My tip is both teams to score. Odds are currently dropping on this bet and I expect them to drop even more. Prediction: CSKA Moscow – Sporting Lisbon 2-2.
Pick: Both to score
Odds: 1.73 @ Bet365
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 5.84
Event date: 26 August
