NK Maribor vs Sporting Lisbon preview - Zahovic hails "best generation"

Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2014 by PA

Slovenian champions Maribor aim to add to Sporting Lisbon's struggles when they end their 15-year wait for UEFA Champions League group stage football on Wednesday.

The two clubs line-up in Group G with Chelsea and Schalke the favourites to qualify from the section, and probably need to pick up early points if they have designs of making the knockout stages of the competition.

Maribor have already had to beat Zrinjski Mostar, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Celtic to make the group stages and provide a real boost for Slovenian football.

And Portugal-born striker Luka Zahovic, who has scored five goals in as many league matches this season, claims that he feels part of Maribor's golden generation.

"Last season, I said that this is the best generation ever to play for Maribor," he told the club's official website.

"I'm proud that I can be part of this team and the great thing is that we can play in the Champions League.

"We earned it. We look forward to all of the action that follows."

Maribor have won five of their opening seven league fixtures and confidence is high after overcoming Scottish champions Celtic 2-1 on aggregate in the Champions League play-off round.

Marco Silva's Sporting, by contrast, have endured an underwhelming start to the Portuguese League campaign with a 1-0 home victory over Arouca their only win of the season so far, having been held to 1-1 draws in their other three fixtures to date.

"Obviously people were expecting big things," the on-loan Manchester United winger Nani told Sporting's official website.

"We wanted to start the season in the best possible way and we still have a lot of games to play.

"We will fight as hard as we can to get better results."

Sporting are in the group stage for the first time since the 2008-09 campaign when they reached the last 16 but were humbled 12-1 on aggregate to Bayern Munich.

The Portuguese outfit have failed to travel well in European competition for some time, having lost seven and drawn three of their last 10 away fixtures.

Ramy Rabia (stomach) has been ruled out but fellow defender Cedric is included in a 21-man squad after back trouble, while it is thought Maribor coach Ante Simundza has a fully-fit squad to select from.