‘Downsized’ of the Champions League, Sporting this Thursday, February 15, its debut in the dispute of the season 2017/2018 of the Europa League. He will face Astana in the first round of this kind of continental “second division”. Starting at 2:00 p.m., the confrontation will be held at the Astana Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan.
From now on, all stages of the tournament will be set in round-robin games until the two finalists are known. In case of equality of number of points conquered at the end of the two matches, the tiebreaker to be made according to the goal balance or the number of goals scored away from home. The second match between Sporting and Astana was scheduled for February 22 in Lisbon.

Astana’s recent performance

Kazakhstan’s side reached the second round of the Europa League when they finished second in Group A. With ten points (three wins, one draw and two defeats), they were beaten by Villarreal (11) and left behind Slavia Prague (eight) and Maccabi Tel Aviv (four).
The victory against Slavia Prague in the Czech Republic, 1-0, ended on December 7 the 2017 season for Astana. The Premier League of Kazakhstan follows the annual calendar and had been completed two days earlier. The 2018 edition will start only in March.
Astana reached with a 2-0 win in the final round against Akzhayik Uralsk the fourth consecutive title of the national championship. He won 79 points (25 wins, four draws and four losses). One more than the Almaty, runner-up.
This year, he made only friendly matches. Between the end of January and beginning of February he played six games. He won four and lost two.

The current form of Sporting

Sporting is in a competitive rhythm. At the beginning of 2018, he has already put a new trophy in his gallery. Conquered the Portuguese League Cup title. But he is still pursuing two other national achievements.
It is in the semifinals of the Portuguese Cup. He made the first game against Porto, at the home of the rival, having lost by 1 to 0. Now, will have to reverse the disadvantage in their domains. In the Portuguese Championship, managed to defeat, on Sunday, February 11, Feirense. At home, he scored 2 to 0.
In this way, he started to share the vice-leadership with Benfica. He has 53 points (16 wins, five draws and one loss). However, as it loses at the time of using the tiebreaker criteria, it appears in the third place. The difference for Porto, leader, is only two points. The first place, however, still has one more match to be made.
In international competitions, Sporting started the season in the Champions League. But he did not get to the octave stage. He was in third place in group D, beating Barcelona (14) and Juventus (11). He got his place in the Europa League by beating Olympiacos (one point).
For the duel of Thursday, coach Jorge Jesus has two medical problems. They are in the process of recovering from injury and are doubtful to face Astana attackers Bas Dost (20 games in the Portuguese Championship 2017/2018, 19 goals) and Daniel Podence (12 games, no goal).

History of the matches
This will be the first match between teams.

Better technically and in a rhythm of competition, Sporting, even outside the home, appears as a more appropriate choice of guess. It has a price of 2.00 in Bet365. Draw shows return of 3.25 and success of Kazakhstan team allows multiplication by 3.90 for each real invested. Quotes were in effect at 12:59 pm on 12/2/2018.