Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sporting Lisbon Preview: Managerless Sporting look to return to winning ways at Stamford Bridge

Shakhtar Donetsk will face Sporting Lisbon at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday as both sides look to bounce back from their first defeats of the league phase.

Interim coach Tiago Fernandes will manage Sporting after the shock sacking of Rui Borges on Monday, despite back-to-back wins in the league and the cup.

Shakhtar are playing their Champions League home games in West London due to the war in Ukraine and defeated AEK Athens in their first and only game there so far.

Arda Turan’s side sit atop the Ukrainian League, with nine wins from a potential 11 to start the domestic season as they look to win the title for a second year in a row.

In the Champions League, they sit in 17th with four points from three games.

Their campaign opened with a draw away at PSV, before defeating AEK Athens 3-1 in Matchweek 2 thanks to goals from Pedriho, Tobias and Mendoza.

Their last appearance was a disappointing 1-0 loss to Inter at the San Siro, with the Italian side scoring the winner with ten men on the field after Bastoni was sent off in the 68th minute.

Sporting enter the game without a full-time manager after the announcement that Rui Borges, who won the league for Sporting in 2025, has had his contract terminated.

It is widely expected that Lyon boss Paulo Fonseca will take charge of his boyhood club after what appeared to be an emotional farewell following Lyon's victory over Angers at the weekend.

The Lions started their Champions League campaign well, with victories over Galatasaray and Lens, before suffering a 3-2 defeat to LASK in Matchweek 3.

That loss was followed by a league defeat to newly promoted Academico de Viseu, which seems to have been enough for Borges to lose his job, with Sporting sitting third in the Primeira Liga, nine points off leaders Porto.

In the Champions League, their six points have them in 12th place.

The sides have only met twice before, with two 1-0 wins for Sporting in the 2008/2009 Champions League group stage.

Team News:

Shakhtar will be without Pedrinho, who scored their opener against AEK Athens, after the forward underwent thigh surgery, while Eguinaldo and Marlon Santos also remain sidelined.

Sporting, meanwhile, expect Rodrigo Zalazar and Zeno Debast to miss out, while Nuno Santos remains a long-term absentee.

As usual, Shakhtar boast a strong Brazilian contingent, with 21-year-old winger Alisson their standout player so far this season; he and midfielder Marlon were called up to the Brazil squad for the first time last week.

For Sporting, all eyes will be on Luis Suarez; the Colombian striker has scored in every Champions League game this season, and had scored in ten games on the bounce until drawing a blank against Casa Pia last Friday.

Predicted Line Ups:

Shakhtar Donetsk: Riznyk; Tobias, Bondar, Matviyenko, P Henrique; Nazaryna, Ocheretko, Isaque; Alisson, Elias, Mendoza

Sporting Lisbon: Kaique; Fresneda, Quaresma, Inácio, M Araújo; Doumbia, Altimira; Catamo, P Lima, Irankunda; L Suárez

Prediction: 2-1

Sporting have more quality than the Ukrainians, but it’s always hard to predict how a team will do under an interim head coach.

It will also be interesting to see what the atmosphere is like at Stamford Bridge; last time out, almost 30,000 fans, 10,000 of whom were AEK Athens supporters, attended, and there was a party atmosphere among the long-suffering Ukrainians at the final whistle.

If they can create good energy at their adopted home again, they can pose real problems for Sporting.