Late lifeline gives Sporting chance

Sporting Clube de Portugal scored a late penalty to leave Goodison Park with a 2-1 defeat that ensures this UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie is in the balance ahead of the second-leg decider in Lisbon.

• Goals from Steven Pienaar (35) and Sylvain Distin (49) looked to have set the Toffees up for a comfortable victory, but Miguel Veloso (87) replied from the spot after Distin was dismissed for a foul on Liedson.

Previous meetings
• The first leg was the sides' first competitive meeting. Everton had not faced a team from Portugal before their autumn encounters with SL Benfica in the group stage, when they suffered successive defeats against Sporting's city rivals.

• Everton fell to their heaviest defeat in UEFA club competition when losing 5-0 at Benfica in October. They also succumbed 2-0 in the return fixture at Goodison Park, surrendering a nine-game unbeaten home record in Europe in the process.

• Sporting have considerably more experience of facing English opposition. Their overall record from 16 matches against teams from England is W7 D3 L6; at home it is W5 D1 L1.

• Sporting overcame English clubs Middlesbrough FC and Newcastle United FC en route to the 2004/05 UEFA Cup final that they lost at their home ground, the Estádio José Alvalade, against PFC CSKA Moskva.

Match background
• Everton and Sporting both won through from this round of the UEFA Cup in 2007/08.

• David Moyes's team beat SK Brann 8-1 on aggregate to reach the last 16, where they went out to ACF Fiorentina on penalties.

• Sporting prevailed 5-0 on aggregate against FC Basel 1893 and then got the better of Bolton Wanderers FC before losing out to Rangers FC in the last eight.

• Sporting fared less well last season when European football resumed after the winter break, bowing out of the UEFA Champions League with a 12-1 aggregate defeat by FC Bayern München.

• Sporting have won just one of their last five European home games since a 5-0 loss to Bayern in their final UEFA Champions League fixture of 2009/10, but are unbeaten in the same period, recording a win and four draws. They have averaged exactly a goal a game at home in Europe this season.

• The 5-0 loss at Benfica was Everton's only European away defeat this term, with their other three games netting them two wins and a draw.

Team facts
• Hélder Postiga spent 2003/04 at Tottenham Hotspur FC and played in a 3-0 win against Everton. He claimed only one goal in 19 Premier League appearances but ended the season by scoring against England in Portugal's UEFA EURO 2004 quarter-final victory.

• As a player, Sporting coach Carlos Carvalhal was on the receiving end of a 6-0 reverse in England when his SC Braga side lost at Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup.

• Diniyar Bilyaletdinov played alongside Marat Izmailov for FC Lokomotiv Moskva prior to the latter's 2007 departure for Sporting. They have also featured together in the Russia national team.

• Louis Saha appeared as a substitute for Manchester United FC in home and away wins against Sporting in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Saha scored the only goal as Manchester United beat SL Benfica in Lisbon in the UEFA Champions League on 26 September 2006. He was also a substitute in France's 1-0 semi-final defeat of Portugal at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

• New Sporting signing Pedro Mendes knows a fair bit about English football, having represented Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth FC from 2004 to 2008 prior to heading north of the border to sign for Rangers.

• Despite managing a solitary goal during a short stay on Merseyside in 1978, former Everton striker Mickey Walsh went on to score 42 goals in 75 games for Sporting's domestic rivals FC Porto.

• Goodison has been home to three Portuguese internationals in the last decade – Abel Xavier (1999 to 2002), Nuno Valente (2005 to 2009) and Manuel Fernandes (2007 and 2008) all having spells with the Premier League club.

• The winners of this tie play either Club Atlético de Madrid or Galatasaray AŞ in the round of 16 on 11 and 18 March, with the second leg at home.

Penalties
• Sporting's only two European penalty shoot-outs ended in defeat; 5-3 at FC Dinamo Minsk in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup and 4-3 at SSC Napoli in the 1989/90 edition of the same competition.

• Everton won their first European shoot-out 4-3 at home against VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1970/71 European Champion Clubs' Cup but more recently lost 4-2 on spot kicks to Fiorentina in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup.

Everton
Suspended: Sylvain Distin
Misses next match if booked: Tim Cahill, Tony Hibbert
Players added to squad: Philippe Senderos, Landon Donovan
Players removed from squad: Jô, Luke Garbutt

Sporting
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: Liedson, Matías Fernández, João Moutinho, Daniel Carriço
Players added to squad: Pedro Mendes
Players removed from squad: Felipe Caicedo, Vladimir Stojković, André Marques