Sporting Clube de Portugal will look to see off
Legia Warszawa at home following a 2-2 draw in
Poland and book a tie against Liga rivals FC Porto
or Manchester City FC in the UEFA Europa League
round of 16.
• Jakub Wawrzyniak (37) put the hosts ahead in
Warsaw, but Daniel Carriço came off the bench to
head Sporting level (60). Janusz Gol's first goal of
the competition restored Legia's lead, only for
André Santos to produce a wonderful curling effort
(88) to ensure Ricardo Sá Pinto avoided defeat in
his first game in charge of Sporting.
Previous meetings
• The clubs have been paired for the first time in
UEFA competition having never met sides from their
opponents' nation before.
• Polish clubs' 19 previous UEFA games against
Portuguese teams have ended W3 D6 L10 (W0 D1 L8 in
Portugal).
• Sides from the two nations met in last season's
UEFA Europa League round of 32; KKS Lech Poznań beat
SC Braga 1-0 at home but lost 2-0 in Portugal.
Match background
• Sporting are unbeaten in eight European home games
− seven wins and a draw − since a 2-0 loss to
Brøndby IF in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League
play-offs.
• The Lisbon outfit are competing in the round of 32
for the fifth time since the advent of the UEFA Cup
group stage in 2004/05, when they lost 3-1 against
PFC CSKA Moskva in the final. They have only once
failed to reach the round of 16, bowing out to
Rangers FC on away goals last season.
• Legia have won three of their five European away
games this season, losing the other two.
• Legia made it through the UEFA Europa League group
stage at the first attempt this season; they have
not played in the spring phase of a European
competition since reaching the quarter-finals of the
1995/96 UEFA Champions League, where they drew 0-0
at home with Panathinaikos FC but lost the return
3-0.
Team facts
• Legia are at their most dangerous after the break;
eight of their nine goals since the start of the
2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage have come
after the interval.
• Sporting's Xandão turns 24 on the day of the game.
• Portugal and Poland will meet in a friendly on 29
February to mark the official opening of the Warsaw
National Stadium, one of the host venues for UEFA
EURO 2012.
• Legia defender Michał Żewłakow and Sporting's
Stijn Schaars were on opposite sides in two 2009/10
UEFA Champions League group stage matches;
Żewłakow's Olympiacos FC beat Schaars' AZ Alkmaar
1-0 at home and drew the return fixture 0-0.
• Ricky van Wolfswinkel scored three times in the
Netherlands' 4-0 win against Poland in an October
2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier,
with Legia's Maciej Rybus on the losing side.
• Sporting's only previous Polish player was striker
Andrzej Juskowiak, who represented the Lisbon side
from 1992 to 1995.
• Only one player has been transferred between the
clubs; Brazilian defender Edson spent the first half
of 2005/06 with Sporting before joining Legia in the
winter, helping them to win the title.
• Domingos Paciência was dismissed as Sporting coach
in the run-up to the first leg, having led SC Braga
to last season's UEFA Europa League final, where
they lost 1-0 to FC Porto in Dublin.
• Youth coach Ricardo Sá Pinto, 39, has been named
Sporting boss until the end of the season. The
former Portugal forward had two spells with
Sporting, from 1994-97 and 2000-06 and played abroad
with Real Sociedad de Futbol and R. Standard de
Liège.
• Legia's Maciej Skorża took his first steps in
management as a youth coach with the Warsaw club
after a brief playing career as a defender. Skorża
established his reputation with Amica Wronki,
Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski and Wisła Kraków,
where he won two Polish league titles.
Round of 16
• The winners of this tie will take on either
Sporting's Liga rivals Porto or Manchester City in
the round of 16 on 8 and 15 March, playing the first
leg at home.
• Neither side have met either of their potential
opponents in UEFA competition.
