Sporting set sights on Roma

Sporting Clube de Portugal will feel three points are the requisite against AS Roma if they are to get back into serious contention for a place in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds.

• Roma's 2-1 victory against Sporting at the Stadio Olimpico on 23 October left Luciano Spalletti's team in a favourable position to progress, second in Group F with six points from their first three games – three points better off than third-placed Sporting.

• Although nothing can be decided at the Estádio José Alvalade, Sporting will be determined to recover that lost ground. Roma, for their part, will know that another victory against the Portuguese team will leave them on the threshold of the last 16.

• Roma owed their Matchday 3 success to a 70th-minute strike from Mirko Vučinić. He restored the Serie A side's lead after Roma's Juan (15 minutes) and Sporting's Liedson (18) had swapped first-half goals.

• It was the Giallorossi's second home win in Group F after they opened their campaign by defeating FC Dynamo Kyiv 2-0, Simone Perrotta and Francesco Totti the scorers. Away from home, however, they have lost their one outing to date, 1-0 at Manchester United FC on Matchday 2.

• Sporting started off with a 1-0 home loss to United before recording a 2-1 victory away to Dynamo. Tonel opened the scoring after 14 minutes in Kiev and although Vladyslav Vaschuk equalised for the hosts, Anderson Polga's 38th-minute strike proved enough for Paulo Bento's team to take the three points.

• Sporting beat FC Internazionale Milano 1-0 in the sides' group stage fixture in Lisbon in September 2006, Marco Caneira scoring, but this was the Portuguese club's only victory in their last 13 matches against Italian teams.

• Their overall home record against teams from Serie A is three wins, five draws and two defeats from ten games.

• Roma have previously met Portuguese opposition in five two-legged ties in UEFA club competition, winning three and losing two. Their record on Portuguese soil reads two wins, one draw and two defeats.

• Prior to playing Sporting on Matchday 3, the Giallorossi's most recent Portuguese opponents had been Boavista FC, whom they faced in the second round of the 2000/01 UEFA Cup. Vincenzo Montella scored the only goal of the first leg in Porto while Hidetoshi Nakata found the net in a 1-1 draw in the return leg in the Italian capital.

• Sporting coach Bento has unhappy memories of facing a couple of Roma's players. He was in the Portugal team beaten 2-0 by Italy in a friendly in April 2000 in which Giallorossi captain Totti scored the second goal.

• Bento was also on the receiving end of a 2-0 loss when his then side SL Benfica played an AC Milan team that included Christian Panucci in the 1994/95 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.

• It was in Portugal that Roma's Ludovic Giuly scored the winning goal in his first ever UEFA club competition game for Olympique Lyonnais. SC Farense were the opposition and Lyon prevailed 1-0 in a UEFA Cup first-round tie in September 1995.