Atlantic Lion

Yes, last Friday we played for the league on a synthetic pitch and Nani suffered a thigh strain. Those pitches are just horrible. We miss 3 usual starters. Wingbacks Jefferson and Cédric are out too. Hopefully the kids Jonathan and Esgaio will be up to the challenge.

The men we took to London.

Hello people! Greetings to all! We are looking forward to this game with these chances in mind: Chelsea x Sporting = CHELSEA ---- Maribor x Schalke = MARIBOR -» Sporting qualifies ---- Maribor x Schalke = DRAW -» Sporting qualifies ---- Maribor x Schalke = SCHALKE -» We're off to the Europa League Chelsea x Sporting = DRAW ---- Maribor x Schalke = MARIBOR -» Sporting qualifies ---- Maribor x Schalke = DRAW -» Sporting qualifies ---- Maribor x Schalke = SCHALKE -» Sporting qualifies Chelsea x Sporting = SPORTING ---- Maribor x Schalke = MARIBOR -» Sporting qualifies ---- Maribor x Schalke = DRAW -» Sporting qualifies ---- Maribor x Schalke = SCHALKE -» Sporting qualifies The odds look very good but unfortunately the only possible negative combination is the most likelly to happen. The bad news are: Nani is out for one month. Jefferson is injured as well. Anyway we won't be playing with 11 men behind the ball. That's not in our nature, We expect to put up a decent exhibition and play the game for what it is. And for all the crap that happened in Germany, I really hope Maribor can knock Gazprom 04 out of all competitions.

It makes me so sad that we weren't allowed to join this great night of football. We started winning at Gelsenkirchen, things got a bit out of hand, we got a man sent off for nothing, suffered an offside goal YET down to 10 man we came back. But in added time the goal referee clearly saw... Well, no one knows what did he see. Like Drogba once said:

Congratulations for the win, Great football. We did a great game too, but stronger forces prevailed.

The game from a green perspective. The pitch was horrible as always. We have the same persistent problem of Ajax. Because the roof is too large and closed, the sunlight and wind circulation are poor thus the grass won't grow well. Actually our team suffers with it a lot. I don't agree when Mourinho said "it could have ended either 1-1 or 0-5". A final score is always the correct one. The whole match wasn't a brilliant display of attacking football. I don't agree either with Chelsea having been wasteful. To be honest Chelsea players looked a bit sloppy to me. Probably thinking of Arsenal. The goal actually arrived from an iffy set piece and our keeper didn't look well in that picture as he was misplaced, but he redeemed himself when we exposed our defence chasing the equalizer, he was flawless. In the second half we played some interesting football, it wouldn't have been a shocker if it ended 1-1. It's good, our boys did great. And Chelsea will be fine, it's the best team in the group and there'll be nothing else to see. Schalke are no opposition to you. My final thoughts go for the kits that both teams used. Both awful. That all-green uniform of ours is terrible. I'd rather see the classic colours in action:

Hey! That's a pic I took from my seat. I was focused on the match and I ended up fogetting to set a better resolution. It's taken with a smartphone anyway. The pic is not too good.

Maribor aren't very good. We had 63% ball possession and scored a nice goal but we missed a lot of opportunities. We always do. And just because Maribor were so nice to us, at minute 91:40 our centre-backs decided we should share the prize money...........

Hi there! I'm a Sporting fan. Hey, we share a similar history of a club with a lion on its crest that almost went bankrupt because of the new stadium and mismanagement overall. And yes we even had our badge controversially changed without fans being heard too. It's been a while since we last played in the Champions League, from our eleven only Nani, Patrício and Adrien have played at this stage. That's why we are looking forward to this match on Tuesday. It'll be an exciting game, the biggest challenge of the year. I don't expect to collect 3 points here. We're just waking up from a long crisis that started to be felt in 2005 after we lost the UEFA Cup at home and that had its lowest point when we ended in 7th in 2012-13. This is a new team mostly made up of youngsters from our academy and many guys that were playing for small teams. We are commemorating 50 years of the 1964 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup win and I'll be happy with the lads delivering a respectful performance in front of the fans and all the eyes that will be set on this match. The atmosphere will be excellent and I'm sure it will be a great meeting.