Sporting CP vs Manchester City live stream, BT Sport, Tuesday 15 February, 8pm GMT
Manchester City will be looking to establish a first-leg lead when they face Sporting CP in the Champions League round of 16 on Tuesday.
Pep Guardiola’s side will be striving to go one better this season after losing in the final of this competition last time out. City were the favourites to beat Chelsea in the showpiece last May, but some strange selection decisions from their manager contributed to a 1-0 defeat. It is now 10 years since Guardiola left Barcelona and he has yet to win the Champions League away from the Camp Nou. That is a statistic he will be desperate to amend this campaign.
City lost on matchdays two and six in the group phase, but victories in each of their four other games ensured their passage to the round of 16. A phenomenal run of 14 wins in their last 15 Premier League matches has seen City open up a sizable lead at the top of the table, and that could allow them to focus on their European exploits from here on in.
Sporting CP qualified from Group C as runners-up, edging out Borussia Dortmund thanks to a superior head-to-head record. That was no mean feat and Ruben Amorim’s side should not be underestimated, but it is fair to say City would have been pleased with the draw for the round of 16.
Guardiola was able to rest some of his regular starters for the 4-0 thumping of Norwich at the weekend. We can expect Joao Cancelo, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Aymeric Laporte to return to the XI on Tuesday, but Jack Grealish will need to be assessed. Kyle Walker is suspended, so Cancelo is likely to start at right-back with Oleks Zinchenko on the left.
Pedro Goncalves faces a late fitness test for Sporting, who will welcome back Joao Palhinha after the midfielder was rested for the meeting with Porto last time out.
Kick-off is at 8pm GMT and the game is being shown live on BT Sport 2 in the UK.
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Use a VPN to watch a Sporting CP vs Manchester City live stream from outside your country
If you’re on holiday or just simply out of the country, your domestic on-demand services won’t work – the broadcaster knows exactly where you are from your IP address. Your access to the game will be automatically blocked, which is annoying if you’ve paid a subscription fee and don't want to use an illegal stream that decides to buffer at the worst possible moment. And that's where we recommend ExpressVPN (more on which below).
All you need to do is get a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get beyond such aggravations (assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs). A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, meaning suppliers can’t work out where you are and what you’re doing. The info going to and from is entirely encrypted.
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