Galatasaray meets Sporting Lisbon in the first match of the Champions League

Galatasaray will face Portuguese representative Sporting away in the first week of the UEFA Champions League.

The match, which will be held at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in the capital Lisbon, will start at 22.00 GMT. Referee Espen Eskas from the Norwegian Football Federation will referee the match.

The match will be broadcast on TRT 1 and of course its platform in Türkiye.

TOP 11'S

Sporting: Rui Silva, Altimira, Catamo, Vagiannidis, Zalazar, Araujo, Inacio, Guilherme, Quaresma, Doumbia, Suarez.

Galatasaray: Uğurcan, Sallai, Sanchez, Jakobs, Eren, Sara, Sane, Yunus, Torreira, Barış Alper, Batrakov.

Completing the 2025-26 season as champions in the Trendyol Super League, the yellow-red team gained the right to compete directly in the UEFA Champions League.

"Cimbom", which has previously appeared in the "Giants League" arena for 18 seasons, will open its 19th season with the Sporting competition.

3 MISSING IN GALATASARAY

The yellow-red team will play the first week match in the "Giants League" with 3 important missing players.

Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen and Gabon midfielder Mario Lemina, who injured his groin in the match against Başakşehir FK in the 4th week of the Trendyol Super League, as well as Ivory Coast right-back Wilfried Singo, who suffered an injury in training, will not be able to play in the match.

Kaan Ayhan, Arda Ünyay, Kazımcan Karataş, Eyüp Aydın and Can Armando Güner, who are not in the UEFA squad at Galatasaray, will not be able to serve due to the status.

LEAO AGAINST SPORTING FROM ITS INFRASTRUCTURE

Galatasaray's new transfer, Rafael Leao, will play against Sporting, from whose infrastructure he trained.

Leao, who started playing football in his native Portugal's Sporting team in 2012, was promoted to the A team in the 2017-18 season. Leao, who scored 2 goals in 5 official competitions here, was transferred to the French team Lille in the summer of 2018 for approximately 20 million euros.

Leao's 17-year-old brother Paulo Simao currently plays for Sporting's under-23 team.

DENİZ AND NHAGA KNOW SPORTING CLOSELY

Galatasaray players Deniz Gül and Renato Nhaga have had experience in Portugal before.

National center forward Deniz, transferred by the yellow-red club from Porto, played in 5 official matches against Sporting. While the young striker could not contribute to the score in these competitions, he had 1 win, two draws and a defeat.

Guinea-Bissau midfielder Nhaga, who was acquired from the Portuguese representative Casa Pia in an intermediate transfer last season, was defeated in both matches against Sporting.

NEW TRANSFER BITSHIABU MAY PLAY IN HIS FIRST MATCH

French defender El Chadaille Bitshiabu, who was added to Galatasaray's squad in the last days of the transfer season, will play for the first time in the yellow-red jersey if coach Okan Buruk assigns him the task.

The 21-year-old defender, who was rented from Germany's Leipzig team, started training with the team on Saturday, September 5. Bitshiabu will be one of the moves that will relieve Okan Buruk in terms of defense in the match where Mario Lemina, who can also play as a centre-back, will not be able to play due to his injury.

GALATASARAY WANTS TO CONTINUE WHERE IT LEFT OFF

The yellow-red team will try to improve on its good performance in the UEFA Champions League last season.

Galatasaray, which faced Eintracht Frankfurt, Liverpool, Bodo/Glimt, Ajax, Union Saint-Gilloise, Monaco, Atletico Madrid and Manchester City in the league stage of the "Giants League" last season, finished in the 20th place with 10 points.

"Cimbom", which eliminated Italy's Juventus team in the last 16 round play-offs, advanced to the last 16 rounds. The yellow-red team, which was eliminated by Liverpool here, left behind a successful tournament for itself.

Coach Okan Buruk and his students will fight to take this success one step further this season.

GOOD START TO THE SEASON

Galatasaray was undefeated in 4 official matches in the 2026-27 season.

The yellow-red team started the Trendyol Super League, where they have been champions for the last 4 seasons, with a draw against Arca Çorum FK at home. Galatasaray caught a winning streak by winning the matches against Erzurumspor FK, Göztepe and Başakşehir.

Although "Cimbom" got what it wanted in terms of scores in the 4 matches it played, it attracted attention with its defensive problems. Galatasaray, which conceded goals especially from set pieces, conceded two goals each in 3 of the 4 league matches.

SPORTING, ONE OF LAST SEASON'S QUARTER FINALISTS

Sporting, one of the well-established clubs of Portuguese football, succeeded in reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League last season.

Having clinched the championship in the 2024-25 season in the Portuguese League, Sporting directly participated in the 36-team league stage of Europe's number 1 football tournament at the club level. The green-white team, which had 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats in the 8 matches it played, ranked 7th and advanced directly to the last 16 rounds.

Sporting, which made its way to the quarter-finals by eliminating the surprise team of the Champions League, Bodo/Glimt, in this round, was eliminated by the English team Arsenal, which would advance to the final.

Having had a good season in the Champions League, Sporting finished second in the Portuguese League and once again gained the right to directly participate in this tournament.

The Lisbon representative, one of the teams that won the most trophies in Portuguese football, experienced its only championship in the international arena by winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in the 1963-64 season.

THERE ARE IMPORTANT FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN THEIR SQUAD

Sporting has a young squad, but still has important players who have made a name for themselves in world football.

The green-white team's squad, which has an average age of 23.6, includes defenders Gonçalo Inacio, Zeno Debast, Eduardo Quaresma, Maxi Araujo, midfielders Sergi Altimira, Issa Doumbia, Rodrigo Zalazar and attackers Nestory Irankunda, Geny Catamo, Luis Suarez and Fotis Ioannidis.

Sporting, which won 4 of the 5 matches in the Portuguese League this season and drew 1, is a leading scorer with 14 goals. Luis Suarez, who scored 4 goals in the league, Flavio Gonçalves, who scored 3 goals, and Fotis Ioannidis, who scored 2 goals, stand out as the players that Galatasaray defense should pay attention to.