CSKA Moscow vs Sporting Lisbon Betting Tips

CSKA have been in terrific form in the Russian Super League, scoring plenty of goals and winning six out of six to start their year. They’re now one victory from another appearance in the Champions League group stages, but they’ll be disappointed in the manner in which they were broken down in the late stages of the first leg allowing Slimani to give Sporting a valuable late winner.

Bibras Natcho and Roman Eremenko need to have strong games, while CSKA’s approach, where they play deep and aim to counter attack probably won’t change much, even on home turf. This is a side with chemistry, cohesion and an understanding of the type of football game that they want to play.

Meanwhile, Sporting are fresh of their first disappointment of the young season after being held to a draw in the Primeira Liga this weekend. They should come into this game full of confidence after controlling the flow of the game and possession in the first leg, before eventually securing a valuable 2-1 victory.

The away goal factor is well-discussed, but Sporting Lisbon are very capable of travelling to Moscow and scoring a goal. It’ll be interesting to see whether Jorge Jesus tinkers with his line-up after a span where the club has played four games in 10 days. There were some tired legs during Sunday’s disappointing performance.

This clash is most famous for the 2005 UEFA Cup Final when CSKA pulled away to secure a 3-1 victory. Neither of these sides will be given too much chance of advancing past the group stages of the Champions League, but the prestige of the competition still holds significance.

We are not expecting CSKA to allow this game to open up in the same way as the first leg affair did. They will want a controlled, low-scoring game. However, we’re also wary that this club hasn’t been able to assert itself in that way against top European competition. They conceded four goals against Sparta Prague in the third qualifying round.

That being said, the advantage of playing in Moscow and their strong run of form in the Russian Super League makes them a strong betting option at 11/10. Sporting Lisbon started the season impressively with victory over Benfica, but arguably the initial buzz of the Jorge Jesus era appears to have just warn off slightly. They’ve gotten slightly worse each week and they can’t afford for that to happen in this contest. There’s a good chance that this tie will need extra time and or penalties to decide it.