The current European Cup season is the most unsuccessful in Leipzig's short history. The Bulls' previous seven starts in continental tournaments only once ended at the group stage, in all other seasons the team reached the play-offs. Leipzig managed to lose all six rounds of the overall Champions League stage and before the seventh game day has no chance to continue the fight in the playoffs of Europe's elite tournament. Apart from Leipzig, Slovan Bratislava and Young Boys remain without a single point out of the 36 teams in the general stage. Even if the Bulls no longer have any serious tournament motivation, they need to leave this company immediately. After all, the image of this wealthy club is at risk of suffering impressive damage. Sporting for a long time dominated the Portuguese championship and collected victories in the Champions League. Everything "spoilt" London Arsenal, who beat the "green and white" with a score of 5:1 and caused them a serious game crisis. Now the situation in Sporting has stabilised, the team occupies seventeenth place in the Champions League standings. In order to enter the knockout rounds, the leader of the Portuguese championship is enough to win one of the two remaining matches. Bookmakers have identified the guests as favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 2.36 on their victory.

Leipzig is in fifth place in the German league - outside the Champions League zone. After the winter break in the Bundesliga, the Bulls won, lost and drew once each. Despite the general instability, Leipzig have no problems with one component so far. In these three January rounds of the Bundesliga, the Bulls have scored a total of eight goals. It is worth noting that only in three official meetings of the current season Leipzig failed to score in their home walls. One of the opponents in such matches was Liverpool.

Sporting in the Portuguese championship is leading, having three points advantage over Benfica. It was the "eagles" in the penalty shootout in the League Cup Lisbon club lost the only match after the above described unsuccessful series of late November and early December. Sporting is well prepared for the upcoming meeting, last Saturday he did not have a chance to do away with Rio Ave in the championship with a score of 3-0. Let's bet on a goal for both teams.