Sporting and Sunderland meet in a pre-season friendly on Monday at the Estadio Algarve. The Portuguese champions begin their summer preparations after a dominant domestic campaign, while Sunderland continue their build-up to a return to the Premier League.
Sporting come into this game having claimed the Primeira Liga title for the second year running. They finished with 82 points, winning 25 of 34 games and suffering just two defeats. Their season was built on consistent goalscoring and strong defence, with 88 goals scored and only 27 conceded. They recorded a league-high xG figure of 72.2 and conceded just 23.4 expected goals, underlining their efficiency. With the squad largely intact and confidence high, they begin pre-season in good shape.
Sunderland, meanwhile, are two weeks deeper into pre-season. After finishing fourth in the Championship and winning promotion through the play-offs, they are adapting to a higher level. Last season they finished with 76 points, scoring 58 goals and conceding 44, which aligned closely to their expected goals of 58.1 and xGA of 49. They showed strong home form but were vulnerable late in the season, losing five straight before steadying themselves in the play-offs.
This friendly is a useful test for both sides, with Sporting looking to build rhythm and Sunderland seeking to maintain fitness and integrate new players.
How the bookies view it: No odds available
Head to Head: Sunderland won the only previous meeting
Sporting CP and Sunderland have only met once in a competitive setting, a pre-season friendly in July 2008 where Sunderland won 3-1 in Portugal. Since then, they have not faced each other, making Monday’s match at Estadio Algarve just their second meeting.
Players to watch: Trincao to star
Francisco Trincao had an outstanding 2024–25 campaign with Sporting, contributing heavily to their league title. He played in all 34 league matches, logging 2936 minutes, scoring nine goals and providing 14 assists. His output aligned closely with his xG of 9.2 and comfortably outperformed his xA of 8.3, showing both clinical finishing and strong creativity. He registered at least one shot in every league game last season, highlighting his consistent attacking involvement. He also recorded two or more shots in 26 of 38 appearances and three or more shots in 23 of those games, underlining how frequently he tested opposing defences.
These numbers show how influential Trincao was both in building and finishing moves, and his reliability as a shooter adds to his value. He was central to Sporting’s attack throughout the season and consistently one of the league’s most productive wide players.
Predicted line-ups
Sporting (4-2-3-1): Silva; Pereira, Coates, Diomande, Inacio; Hjulmand, Goncalves; Trincao, Quaresma, Harder; Quenda
Sunderland (4-3-3): Patterson; Hume, O’Nien, Alese, Cirkin; Neil, Browne, Rigg; Roberts, Mayenda, Adingra
Anything else catch the eye?
Sporting to win this friendly looks a solid bet given the quality and depth they showed throughout last season. In league play, they won 25 of 34 matches and scored in all but one home game. Their attacking output of 88 goals was more than two per match, and they created chances worth around 2.1 xG per game on average.
Even away from competitive intensity, Sporting have tended to control matches against lesser opponents, especially given their ability to score early, they opened the scoring in 28 of their 34 league games. Sunderland, while promoted, come off a Championship season where they underperformed away from home and conceded late goals in many matches.
Sunderland’s xGA away from home was close to 1.2 per game, and they won fewer than half their road games last season. Against a technically superior team in Sporting, who averaged over 60% possession and restricted opponents to very few high-quality chances (just 23.4 xGA across the entire league season), Sunderland may struggle to impose themselves.
With Sporting’s attack sharp even in early pre-season and their defensive structure solid, they should have enough to win this match, even if it is just a friendly.
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