Premier League leaders Arsenal will be looking to secure a spot in the Europa League quarterfinals on Thursday, hosting Sporting Lisbon with the score at 2-2 in the tie.
Bookmaker 10bet is offering odds at 1.86 for Arsenal to start strongly and be winning already at halftime. The odds are at 2.45 for a halftime draw and at 6.25 for Sporting to be holding the lead after 45 minutes of play.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 15th, 9:00 A.M. (EST)
Arsenal has failed to win just four home games this season across all competitions and should be confident of more success against a Sporting team that has a very poor away record against English opposition. They have gone nine games without a win on English soil, drawing four games and losing five.
Sporting’s situation in the tie would be much better if there hadn’t been an unlucky own goal a week ago that allowed Arsenal to draw the game. It was a very good performance from Ruben Amorim’s squad, but even with a much-changed team, the Gunners still had enough quality to match the hosts.
It’s now going to be interesting to see how Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta approaches the return leg. There’s another Premier League game coming up on Sunday and it’s not going to be easy to produce two good performances in such a short space of time. Will he send out a weakened team again and risk sacrificing European success for the league title?
Sporting is also battling on two fronts as they are currently fourth in the Portuguese league and the first team to miss out on Champions League action next season. Amorim has done a wonderful job with the side since taking charge in 2020, but Sporting’s defense simply hasn’t been good enough this season to compete with Benfica and Porto for the championship.
Can Amorim now squeeze out a proper defensive effort from his team to shock Arsenal on Thursday? Things have actually improved for the Lions at the back in recent weeks as the goals conceded against Arsenal are the only ones they have given up across their last five games.
If Sporting can limit Arsenal’s offensive threat and stay in the game until the very end, the speed and trickery of former Tottenham man Marcus Edwards and the creativity of Pedro Goncalves could prove to be decisive in the end.
