UEFA Cup Preview: Sporting CP v Rangers FC

By: Greg | April 3rd, 2008

rangers Today, Sporting face fellow Champions League rejects Rangers at Ibrox in the land of fried food and Sean Connery.

A while back I listened to one of my readers and decided to adopt Sporting as my “Portuguese team of choice” for the upcoming season. Ever since I did this, the team that finished 2nd place last year now sits 5th. They also recently lost the Carlsberg Cup which they should have been a shoo-in for as it was a tournament essentially proposed by Sporting and it is also coincidentally my favorite brand of beer. However, they lost a mind-numbingly boring match on penalties to Jose Mourinho’s hometown team Vitoria Setubal. If these facts aren’t evidence enough that I’m currently the person responsible for plaguing Paulo Bento’s side this season, then I don’t know what further explanation there can be. Therefore, I will be taking Pinto da Costa-style bribes in order to ensure that I do not cheer one bit for Sporting for the rest of the UEFA Cup. All Sporting fans can contact site admin daryl to get my PayPal information so that you may bid for my indifference.

Sporting CP at Rangers (April 3, 2008 - 2:45 PM Local Time) — Seeing as this is Sporting’s last chance at silverware this year, they had better come to Glasgow ready to play. They can consider their venture into Ibrox a success if they manage to escape with a draw. Rangers fans will be pumped up with memories of their magical 1971/72 season when they went into an away Cup Winners’ Cup tie at Sporting in Lisbon having won 3-2 at home. They actually tied the away match 3-3 after extra time but lost on penalties. However, due to the “newness” of the away goals rule, the referee had the game go to a shoot out and Sporting won. This was a short lived taste of victory for Sporting as a bunch of Scottish reporters pointed out the snafu to the Rangers and they went on to win the tournament. Enough Scottish story time though, here’s who will probably be taking the field for your Sporting Clube de Portugal, who are 0-5 all time in Scotland but 5-5 overall against Scottish competition (I’ll let you guess where they won their five games):

Liedson - Yannick Djalo
Izmailov - Romagnoli - João Moutinho
Miguel Veloso
Abel - Tonel - Gladstone - Grimi
Rui Patricio

I don’t want to curse the Lions and predict a positive result for Sporting since I don’t need their Ultras showing up at my apartment with flares and shotguns in their hands. So let’s go with a 2-1 win for Rangers as the prediction here. Maybe I can screw them instead and do the Sporting faithful a favor. Kisses ALL AROUND!! See you tomorrow.