Andre Villas Boas to be Sporting CP's Coach

Current Académica de Coimbra coach Andre Villas-Boas will the control of Sporting Clube de Portugal for the upcoming season. Villas Boas is also well known as Jose Mourinho's assistant manager at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan. Current SCP coach Carlos Carvalhal will leave at the end of the season. This comes as no surprise, as Sporting look as if they will finish at best fourth in Liga Sagres.

Seam's Selections: Europa League Round of 16

Atletico Madrid vs. Sporting

Sporting put an emphatic end to their winless streak against Everton in their last Europa League match, beating the Liverpool side and advancing to the round of 16. Atletico defeated Galatasaray in the last round and are hoping that they can forget their poor form in La Liga with a positive result in Europe. Sporting will take their momentum towards a good result at the Vicente Calderon getting a much needed away goal in a 1-1 draw.

Lille vs. Liverpool

After a disastrous loss to Wigan on Monday Liverpool are surely out of the race for the last Champions League spot in England. Since the Europa League is the only competition Liverpool have a chance of success in expect the Reds to go into France and get the win. Torres and Gerrard will play a major part in a 2-0 win.

Juventus vs. Fulham

Key injuries have dampered Fulham's performances lately in the Premier League and Juventus has too much quality to let the Cottagers score on the road. The Bianconeri should score easily and wrap up their spot in the quarter finals in the 1st leg. My prediction is a 3-0 win for Juventus.

Benfica vs. Marseille

The eagles have put themselves in a comfortable position to win the Liga Sagres after a win against Pacos this weekend and both Porto and Braga dropping points. Marseille are currently 5th place in Ligue 1 but only 3 points behind leaders Bordeaux. Both teams are evenly matched so expect this to be a close game. Marseille will pick up the away goal from captain Niang but goals from David Luiz and Saviola will give Benfica a much needed result heading into the 2nd leg in France. Benfica wins 2-1.

Valencia vs. Werder Bremen (Seam's Dream Matchup)

Valencia have been great in La Liga this season with David Villa leading the way as usual. Look for number 7 to have a big game and score twice at home. Werder still has enough offensive talent with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Claudio Pizzaro, and Marko Marin, to pull off an away goal. But having said that Valencia will be up comfortably 3-1 going into the 2nd leg. Goals from Villa and Hernandez.

Remaining Round of 16 Selections

Hamburg 2 Anderlecht 0

Rubin 0 Wolfsburg 1

Pananthiaikos 0 Standard Liege 0

Sporting Turn Porto into the Laughing Stock

Sporting 3 Porto 0

The Dream's Europa League Predictions: Round of 32, 2nd Leg

Wolfsburg vs. Villareal

After a 2-2 away draw Wolfsburg have set themselves up for a very manageable 2nd leg fixture at home. Expect Wolfsburg to play a tight well-organized game with the main focus being on not conceding any goals. Villareal will have to go for the win if they will have any realistic shot of advancing to the next round. An early goal off a set piece will give Wolfsburg the advantage and a late equalizer will make it close for Villareal but not close enough. Wolfsburg 1 Villareal 1.

Juventus vs. Ajax

Juve's quality finally showed last week after getting two away goals in a 2-1 win at the Amsterdam Arena. With the return leg being played in Turin, look for a very strong performance from a Juve side coming off of a 2-1 win against Bologna over the weekend. A young Ajax side will most likely be outmatched by the home team and Bianconeri will pass through to the next round with a comfortable 1-0 victory.

Galatasaray vs. Atletico Madrid

Frank Rijkaard's club has the clear advantage after a 1-1 draw in Madrid last week. Another disappointing loss to Almeria over the weekend won't do anything Atletico's confidence. As much as I like Kun Aguero and his Portugal-linked teammates there is slim chance they will be able to advance to the next round. A loss here will most likely mean a coaching change for Atletico in the near future. Not too big of a surprise considering Quique Flores, their coach, is no stranger to late season collapses (Benfica last year). Expect Galatasaray to play well at home and come up with a 2-1 win.

Sporting C.P. vs. Everton (Seam's Dream Matchup)

Its no coincidence that the Dream Matchup has including a Portuguese side over the past two weeks. The importance of this game is HUGE for the Lisbon side and keep in mind the counter for Sporting's current winless streak at the top of our page. Sporting did in fact end up with a decent result in the first leg at Goodison Park losing 2-1, but getting the much needed away goal. I'm just going to be blunt about this... Sporting has been terrible this year and like Poppa has mentioned the streak will continue to grow if they do not come up with a win tomorrow night at home. Having said all that, I still cannot get myself to believe in a team that hasn't even shown a glimpse of hope in months. Everton will win, hopefully not by much. Sporting 1 Everton 2

Since it is very difficult to predict exact scores for all these matchup with aggregate and away goals in mind, here are the my predictions for the teams I believe will advance to the quarter finals.

Ruben Kazan over H. Tel-Aviv

Valencia over Club Brugge

Red Bull Salzburg over Standard Liege

FC Twente over Werder Bremen

Fenerbahce over Lille

Athletic Bilbao over Anderlecht

Marseille over Kobenhavn

Roma over Panathinaikos

Shaktar Donetsk over Fulham

Liverpool over Unirea Urziceni

Hamburger SV over PSV

News from Portugal

Boy, Sporting C.P. needs help real badly.  They should probably focus on trying to bring Guus Hiddink in next year.  This team needs a revamping more than Pedro Mendes and Sinama-Pongolle can help them out with.  After losing to Sp. Braga 1-0 Friday, Sporting took a 5-2 shellacking from under form Porto to get knocked out of the Portuguese Cup.  Highlights below..



Meanwhile, looks like the Manuel Fernandes deal did not go through.  Apparently, the two clubs were unable to settle the loan deal before the transfer window closed. [link]

Porto sign 19 year-old Ghanian David Addy from Randers FC (Denmark) for €800,000 [link]

Benfica host Uniao Leiria today at 4:00PM ET in an effort to slip away from Sp. Braga. [ATDHE]

Harry Potter could return to Portugal

Rumor has it Sporting C.P. are getting ready to offer Miguel Veloso and/or Daniel Carrico for Ricardo Quaresma. Could be an interesting move as "the gypsy" has been known to tear up the Liga Sagres.

I thought he was back too after that great game against Bari a couple months ago. He has failed miserably under Mourinho, with merely one goal in just 19 appearances. I always thought Mourinho made the purchase to help Porto get rid of the talented winger. What do you guys think of the potential deal with Sporting?