Young Boys - Sporting CP predictions and free betting tips [15/02/2024]

On Thursday, 15 February, as part of the first match of the 1/16 final of the Europa League, Young Boys will host Sporting at their home ground. The hosts took third place in their Champions League group, while their Portuguese counterparts finished second in their quartet of the second-rated European Cup.

Predicted Line-ups

Young Boys: Von Ballmoos; Blum, Camara, Lustenberger, Hadjam; Males, Lauper, Ugrinic; Mvuka, Itten, Colley.
Sporting: Adan; Quaresma, Coates, Inacio; Catamo, Hjulmand, Morita, Santos; Trincao, Gyokeres, Goncalves.

Stadium

The match will be held in Bern at the Wankdorf Stadium.

Young Boys

Leading the Swiss Super League with a gap of 7 points from second-place Servette, Young Boys dropped points several weeks ago in the match against Basel, losing 1:0. Since then, Rafael Wicky's wards have continued to delight fans, winning against Iverdon (5:1) and Lausanne (0:1), and last weekend delivered a high-scoring draw with Lugano (3:3). Predictably gathering only four points in a challenging Champions League group with Man City and Leipzig, the Swiss found themselves back in the Europa League playoffs.

The pivotal victory of the Bernese over Belgrade's Crvena Zvezda in the second round (2:0). It's worth mentioning that the yellow-black have never advanced beyond the ⅞ final of this European cup. The hosts rarely stumble at home: the team is currently on a streak of seven consecutive home victories in all competitions.

Sporting

Portuguese Sporting intends to reclaim the crown in their championship after missing the Champions League group stage for the past 2 years. Currently, the Lisbon outfit occupies the 2nd position in the national competition, having amassed the same points as Benfica, although with one extra game played. In the Europa League, the white-green logically took the 2nd position in their group, giving up the palm of supremacy to Atalanta.

Recently, Ruben Amorim's students were sensationally knocked out of the League Cup at the semi-final stage by Braga (0:1), although before this defeat the capital grandee had won eight victories in a row in all competitions. In February, the Lisbon side claimed convincing victories over Casa Pia (8:0) and Braga (5:0) last weekend. Sporting also performs convincingly away: five victories have been taken in the last six matches. 

Head-to-Head

These teams have never met each other in official matches.

Match Prediction: Young Boys – Sporting

Sporting Lisbon possess a more superior squad and are experienced European fight contenders. Certainly, Amorim's disciples will keep in mind the return match on their home ground, but the playing style of Young Boys is conducive to creating plenty of open zones on the flanks - the Lisbon's attacking stars will certainly take advantage of that. My stake goes on the favourite's victory.

Total Prediction

Young Boys will undoubtedly concede - but they are also likely to construct a goal thrilling home tribunes. Travelling to Lisbon without garnering a positive result from the home match makes little sense, so I expect a goal exchange here.

Corner Prediction

Both sides propagate an attacking style of football and will extensively utilise the flanks - thus, we stake on the total corners over 9.5.

Yellow Card Prediction

Both teams earn nearly 2 yellow cards per game in the current LE run, so we confidently stake on the total warnings over 3.5.

Score Prediction

I will place a stake on the exact score 1:3 in favour of Sporting.