This has landed in ten of Manchester City’s 15 games this season and it has great potential to occur again on Tuesday night.

Sporting have scored 3.5 goals per game in Liga Portugal in 24/25, whilst Manchester City have averaged 2.1 in the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola’s side have only failed to scored in two of their competitive games so far in 2024, and Sporting have only failed to score in one, back in January.

As per the previous selection, you have to expect goals in this one, and given the rate these two teams score at, it’s hard to believe that both will fail to score more than once.

Sporting have notched twice or more in all bar one game so far this campaign.

City have found it a little tougher to score more than one, but scored four and five in their last Champions League outings.

The Danish midfielder is the destroyer at the heart of Ruben Amorim’s side. The captain took over the midfield role vacated by Manuel Ugarte, who Sporting’s coach will soon be reunited with.

Hjulmand will be key if the Portuguese side are to get anything from this encounter, and will have to work hard to plug the middle of the park, and also move over to assist his wing backs/wide centre backs with the likes of Doku and Savinho due to be running at them.

He has played every minute of Sporting’s Champions League matches so far, so we can expect him to see out the full game. It’s unlikely he’ll make it through 90 minutes without committing a foul.

It seems like it’s been an underwhelming start to the season for Phil Foden.

Last terms PFA players’ player of the year has not scored a goal yet in the Premier League, and has only registered one assist. In Europe, he has two goals and one assist from three appearances, albeit against opposition far inferior to City.

What is consistent though is his desire to take a shot. These are his shot numbers when starting for City in all competitions : six, five, two, four, three, three, four. That’s an average of 3.86 per start.

There is certainly confidence in Foden having three shots on goal in this one, a feat he has achieved in six of his seven starts.

What a way it would be for Amorim to make an impression with his new fan base by getting a result against Pep Guardiola’s side.

They are getting City at just the right time, with fixture congestion talk prevalent over the last few weeks, and with their squad stretched to around 14 available fully fit players. They’ve lost two games on the bounce, but even before that have been struggling to replicate the form of seasons gone by. If you look at their domestic form, they’ve conceded against ten of their last 11 opponents, including Watford, with only Southampton failing to find the net. All of their last nine domestic games have been decided by the odd goal.

Sporting have beaten Lille and Sturm Graz in Europe, the former of which recorded a win over Real Madrid in their opening Champions League game. They will be in buoyant mood given their sparkling domestic form and can hopefully cause an upset here.

The Denmark international midfielder impressed at Euro 2024, catching the eye with his combative displays and a 30 yard screamer against England.

But what caught the eye most was his ability to pick up a booking. He entered this year’s competition as a likely card bet after he picked yellows up at a rate of 0.49 per 90 in Liga Portugal 23/24. During the tournament, he picked up two cards in three games.

So far this season, he has not picked up a single card for Sporting, but he’s continued to pick up yellows for Denmark in the Nations League, with two in two starts.

His lack of cards for his club this season may purely be down to not having encountered the most challenging opposition yet, and this is surely to be their toughest test yet. Back him to be shown a card here.

Gyokeres is a fantastic outlet to have as a lone striker. He is strong and quick, with excellent ball carrying abilities.

With the potential in this game that Sporting may have to play on the counter, Gyokeres may find himself isolated at times, but he is the ideal candidate to draw a foul from the opposition to get his team up the pitch.

He averaged over two fouls won per 90 in both domestic and European competitions in 23/24, and is doing the same so far in 24/25.

We touched on Foden’s shooting in the first bet builder, and not only is he a high volume shot taker, he is also pretty adept at forcing the goalkeeper into a save.

In both Europe and the Premier League last season he averaged comfortably above one shot on target per game, and is far exceeding that in the Champions League so far this season. It’s likely he will test the keeper at some point on Tuesday night.