Coates looks ahead to hosting of Bayer Leverkusen

While accepting that Sporting face a tough challenge in the form of Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League last-31 this Thursday, Sebastián Coates guarantees that his side will do everything to move into the next round.

"We are prepared for the match. It is going to be really hard, but we will try and win so that we can go to Germany a bit calmer. Bayer are a really strong team, basically across their whole team, but I think that we are in good form and we can take advantage of that", opened the centre-back, going on to respond to a question on Sporting's chances of winning the competition: "Of course I think we can win it, but we will see tomorrow and in Germany. We have a good team and we will do everything we can to get into the next round. We have a tough opponent in front of us, but we will put the work in."

Coates finished with a reflection of his arrival at Alvalade: "Since arriving, everyone has treated be really good: my teammates, the coach and the president. I am really happy. There are some good defenders here, like Naldo, Ewerton, Tobias and Ruben Semedo and I am here to learn and to add my experience to the group.”