Polga promises no let up from Sporting

Sporting Clube de Portugal may have secured top spot in UEFA Europa League Group C and their place in the round of 32 with a 1-0 win against LOSC Lille Métropole, but according to matchwinner Anderson Polga there will be no let up in their final game.

Polga scored on 28 minutes to secure Sporting’s 100th UEFA club competition win and ease the pressure ahead of their final group game at PFC Levski Sofia on 16 December. "We want to win in Sofia," the 31-year-old Brazilian international stressed after scoring his first goal of the season.

"We must continue to work and try to win at Sofia as we did at Lille in the first round. It will be a difficult environment but we want to win." He added: "Maybe I'm a bit happier than my colleagues because I was able to score a goal and help to get a very important victory. It was an important goal, because it gave us an historic win in a European competition."

Defender João Pereira took pride in the team ethic that resulted in a fourth win in the section. "We were very consistent defensively throughout the team, not just in defence," he said. "Fortunately we were able to score and got a well deserved victory. Now we will try to win at Sofia. Some say our group isn't very strong but the truth is these teams are all very well placed in their leagues so credit to us."

Lille go into their final game at KAA Gent trailing the second-placed Belgian side by two points and needing a win to join Sporting in the last round. "We now have to give everything in the last match to qualify," defender Emerson said.

"We did everything to avoid defeat today against a very strong side and we knew it was very difficult to play them here. A draw would have been good and we had several chances to score but we conceded very early in the game and that affected us. Now we must beat Gent to go through."

Goalkeeper Mickaël Landreau is looking forward to that decider. "We lost today and now we will have a true final at home against Gent. This is what we wanted, to decide our fate at home."

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