Sporting Lisbon vs Lokomotiv Moscow Betting Tips

This is the first meeting ever between a pair of power houses in their respective domestic leagues. Sporting Lisbon and Lokomotiv Moscow are pitted against each other in Group H of Europa League play.

Sporting Lisbon’s Champions League bid was ended by CSKA Moscow in the qualifying rounds. They now have to settle for another appearance in the Europa League. They’ll hope to get revenge against another Russian opponent on Thursday night.

Sporting have started Primeira Liga play looking in good form winning three and drawing the other in their opening games. They have a nice midfield line-up, keep the ball well, create chances and look good doing it. However, in their draw with Pacos de Ferreira and a few of the other contests, they’ve definitely been guilty of not taking advantage of their scoring opportunities as much as they should do.

They’ll be challenged by a defensively solid Lokomotiv Moscow in this match-up. They’re second place in the Russian Super League, already trailing CSKA, but Lokomotiv has been a reliable and structured set-up.

We’ll anticipate that they maintain a prevention approach, especially away from home in Europa League group play. Expect the midfield to play deep and for them to aim to stifle and suffocate Sporting, who are susceptible to that.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Sporting’s form

Sporting Lisbon are a serious title contender in the Primeira Liga this season. It’s early days, but they compare favourably with fellow rivals Porto and Benfica and that’s a pretty good standard. We like Sporting Lisbon to make some noise in Europa League action this season.

2. Home field advantage

Eastern European teams tend to do their best work at home in Europa League competition. We think that Sporting will find some way to open Lokomotiv up in this game with the script potentially running differently in the return fixture later in the competition.

3. Domestic schedules

Sporting’s domestic schedule both last weekend and the weekend coming is significantly easier and less important than Lokomotiv’s, which might just be an advantage from a squad rotation and fatigue perspective.