Undermanned Sporting await Atlético

Sporting Clube de Portugal will look to take advantage of a goalless first leg when Club Atlético de Madrid make a first competitive visit to Lisbon in their UEFA Europa League round of 16 decider.

• There were no goals at the Vicente Calderón, much to the relief of the visitors who had Leandro Grimi (31) and Tonel (89) dismissed. Both are suspended for the second leg.

Previous meetings
• Sporting have contested 17 UEFA competition matches with Spanish sides, and their record reads W5 D4 L8 (W5 D1 L2 at home).

• Atlético have faced Portuguese opposition nine times in UEFA competition, with their record reading W2 D3 L4 (W0 D1 L3 in Portugal).

• Atlético lost 2-0 away and 3-0 at home to FC Porto in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage. They also met the Dragons in the first knockout round of the same competition last season, bowing out on away goals.

• Despite all their experience of Portuguese opposition, this will be Atlético's first competitive visit to Lisbon; their only previous Portuguese opponents (Boavista FC, Porto and Vitória SC) came from outside the capital.

Match background
• Sporting are unbeaten in six European home games this season, though they have drawn four of those fixtures.

• Atlético have won two of their five European away games this season, losing two and drawing one of the others. They have lost only one of their last six UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League away games, going down 1-0 at Bolton Wanderers FC in the 2007/08 round of 32.

Team facts
• Simão started his career at Sporting, rising through the club's youth ranks before leaving for FC Barcelona in 1999. He later enjoyed a successful spell as captain of SL Benfica (2001-07), playing in every game as they won the 2004/05 title – their first in 11 years.

• Having joined Atlético in 2007, Simão scored the 4,000th Liga goal in the club's history on 12 April 2009 in a game against RC Deportivo La Coruña.

• Quique Sánchez Flores and José Antonio Reyes both spent 2008/09 at Benfica.

• Marco Caneira played for Valencia CF (2004-06 and 2007-08), where he was coached by Quique Flores, who led the club between 2005 and 2007.

• Matías Fernández and Diego Forlán played together at Villarreal CF in 2006/07.

• Paulo Assunção played for CD Nacional (2002-04) and Porto (2005-08) prior to joining his current club.

• Atlético's next goal will be their 350th in UEFA club competition. The second leg with Sporting will be their 207th European game.

• Florent Sinama Pongolle represented Atlético in their autumn campaign before joining Sporting during the winter transfer window. He is not eligible to play in Europe this season.

• The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be staged at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday 19 March. There is no country protection.

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.

• Atlético have lost all three of their UEFA club competition penalty shoot-outs to date; 7-6 at home to Derby County FC in the 1974/75 UEFA Cup, 3-1 at ACF Fiorentina in the 1989/90 UEFA Cup and 3-1 at home to Villarreal CF in a 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup final.