Sporting Lisbon striker Luis Suarez will be available for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg with Arsenal, despite some recent confusion surrounding a possible suspension.
The 33-goal Colombian has been booked twice in the current Champions League campaign and was briefly reported to have picked up a third yellow card in last week’s 1-0 first-leg losswhich would have carried a one-game ban.
However, it turned out that Suarez’s ‘yellow card’ was actually an administrative mistake, so the South American will be fine to spearhead the comeback charge at the Emirates Stadium.
Expect Suarez to start in an unchanged front four alongside Trincao, Geny Catamo and Pedro Goncalves, the latter of whom memorably scored from close to the halfway line when Sporting eliminated Arsenal from the 2022-23 Europa League.
Morten Hjulmand is back from his own one-game ban from the first leg and is a guarantee in midfield, where Daniel Braganca could get the nod over Hidemasa Morita, having netted his fifth Primeira Liga goal of the season in the recent 1-0 win over Estrela Amadora.
Much-coveted centre-back Goncalo Inacio was absent from that victory due to an unexplained physical issue, but also because he would have missed Sunday’s crunch clash with Benfica if he was booked, having picked up four yellows in the Primeira Liga season so far.
There are no serious concerns about Inacio’s availability for Wednesday, though, so the Portugal international should return to a familiar backline also featuring Maxi Araujo, who made seven fouls in the first leg but somehow escaped a card.
Sporting Lisbon possible starting lineup:
Silva; Fresneda, Diomande, Inacio, Araujo; Braganca, Hjulmand; Catamo, Trincao, Goncalves; Suarez
> Click here to see how Arsenal could line up against Sporting
