please log in to view this image EUROPA LEAGUE Venue: Estadio Jose Alvalade Date: Thursday, 8 March Kick-off: 1800 GMT ITV4 & ITV4 HD. Manchester City will be without midfielder Yaya Toure for the trip to Portugal to face Sporting. The former Barcelona man misses out through suspension after he was booked in the 4-0 win over Porto last month. Defender Pablo Zabaleta (hamstring) is also out but Micah Richards could return to replace him at right-back. Although back in training, Carlos Tevez is not registered to play in the Europa League along with midfielder Owen Hargreaves. Sporting knocked out Polish side Legia Warsaw 3-2 on aggregate in the last round, thanks to a free-kick from Matias Fernandez, and City left-back Gael Clichy is not expecting an easy evening in Lisbon. Clichy said: "We have been watching a few Sporting games and every time you play against a side from the Portuguese or Spanish leagues they like to play technical football, so it will be difficult. "They are a good side but we are not scared of any team. We just have to play with our quality and hopefully we can go all the way. "At the start of the season we were in four competitions. Now it's only two and we have to go for it." http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17216731
Away in Europe, just the kind of game we could have done with Yaya. Pizarro, Barry, De Jong, Milner...whoever plays CM tomorrow has a big job to do. Fair to say Yaya won us the game in Porto.
As long as we stay focused on the game for the full 90 mins. there shouldn't be a problem. The last time I looked on the table in Portugal they were 4th or 5th in the table, which was 2 weeks ago, so maybe they have moved up since then. The main thing is to make sure that we score a goal or more, that way we may come a way with a draw or a win.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17303253 I have to say i was a lot happier before i read the line up than after.
Should be a good game! The team you've put out is very strong indeed so it looks like you are taking the competition seriously. Sporting have some decent players as well with Ricky van Wolfswinkel scoring a few in Portugal and being linked to clubs in England. As a Liverpool fan, i'll be keeping an eye out for the Sporting full-back Emiliano Insua. Ex-Liverpool and was decent when he played for us.
Dzeko is ****ing ****e and i cannot believe RM left it so long to replace the hopeless twat, Balotelli changed the game the moment he came on, i would have also used Pizzaro rather than Nasri.
Dzeko was awful tonight, but saying that so was Aguero. I wouldn't look into tonight's game too much. We're only a goal down and the second leg is at home we still have every chance of going through! I've booked my tickets for next week this evening, looking forward to it.
