A very important stretch of Atlético Madrid’s season gets underway at A Stadium Called Wanda on Thursday night.

Los colchoneros will welcome Sporting Clube de Portugal to Madrid for the first leg of a tricky Europa League quarterfinal. Jorge Jesus’s talented team will be looking to spring an upset — or at least grab a goal to take back to Lisbon — against an Atlético side that has not conceded at home since Jan. 20. It will mark the first meeting between these two teams since the 2009/10 Europa League, when Atleti knocked out Sporting on away goals in the Round of 16 en route to winning the competition.

The biggest squad exclusions are in Atlético’s defense. José Giménez (ankle) and Šime Vrsaljko (muscular issue of some sort) remain sidelined — perhaps with one eye on recovering them in time for Sunday’s Madrid Derby. Juanfran has been declared fit, however, and will start his fifth contest in this season’s Europa League. In attack, Vitolo and Antoine Griezmann will return — the latter will start alongside Diego Costa, who came off the bench in Atlético’s victory over Deportivo La Coruña on Sunday.

Possible XI

Oblak; Juanfran, Savić, Godín, Lucas; Gabi, Saúl, Correa, Koke; Griezmann, Costa.

Predicted scoreline

Atlético Madrid 2-1 Sporting Clube de Portugal.

How to watch

Date: April 5, 2018

Location: Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain

Kickoff time: 21:05 CEST, 20:05 GMT/BST, 3:05 p.m. EST, 12:05 p.m. PST

SB Nation opposition blog: N/A

Available TV/streaming: Movistar+, beIN Sports (Spain), BT Sport 3, BT Sport Live (United Kingdom), Fox Sports 2, ESPN+, fuboTV (United States), SIC (Portugal), beIN Sports 2 (France), PPTV Sport (China)

For more listings, head over to livesoccertv.com.