Aberdeen take on Sporting in Lisbon tonight for a chance to play in the Europa League qualifying play-off round for the first time in Derek McInnes’ managerial reign.
To get there, the Dons will need to beat a pedigreed European outfit who have won 18 Portuguese top-flight titles.
Yes, Sporting have been rocked after nine players and boss Ruben Amorim were ruled out of the fixture due to positive Covid-19 test results.
However, they still have significant strength in their ranks.
Here are the five players who we think could be the difference-makers:
Antonio Adan – Goalkeeper
Experienced Spanish stopper, who was brought in last month on a free transfer after leaving Atletico Madrid.
Came through the academy at Atleti’s city rivals Real and was backup to Iker Casillas for a significant period of his time at the Santiago Bernabeu.
A brief stint at Cagliari followed before he joined Real Betis at the start of 2014, where he became a regular and made over 150 appearances in a four-year stay in Seville.
He has been understudy to Jan Oblak at Atleti for the last two seasons and looks set to start tonight with both Luis Maximiano and Renan Ribeiro quarantining.
Sebastian Coates – Defender
Sporting’s club captain, Coates first came to mainstream attention with a six-year stay in England with Liverpool and Sunderland, between 2011 and 2017.
He joined Liverpool in 2011 from Nacional in his native Uruguay, but struggled for regular football under Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers, appearing 24 times in two seasons.
He turned a loan move to the Black Cats into a permanent one, but his stay was short-lived, as he was loaned out by Sam Allardyce to Sporting after he replaced Dick Advocaat.
Coates was part of the Sporting side that won the Portuguese Cup and League Cup in 2019 and he has 39 caps for Uruguay.
Wendel – Midfielder
A highly-rated central midfielder who attracted the attention of Everton over the summer, Wendel has become a regular face in the Sporting CP line-up over the last two seasons.
He came to the attention of the Portuguese giants after his performances for Fluminense during the 2017-18 campaign, with PSG also monitoring his displays.
Played 34 times for the capital outfit last season and is also a Brazil under-23 international.
Luciano Vietto – Forward
Vying for a starting spot with Jovane Cabral, who has been attracting interest from English Premier League side Southampton.
Joined Villarreal in 2014 from Racing Club in Argentina and 20 goals in 48 games persuaded Atletico Madrid to part with around 20 million euros for his services.
He only managed one league goal during his time in Madrid, with loan spells in consecutive seasons at Sevilla, Valencia and Fulham.
Sporting paid 7.5 million euros for his services last year and he appears to have found form at the Jose Alvalade, with eight goals in 35 appearances last season.
Andraz Sporar – Striker
Sporar earned a move to Sporting earlier this year after a prolific spell with Slovan Bratislava.
He chipped with four goals in eight games during the second half of the 2019-20 campaign.
The 26-year-old was spotted by Basel in 2015 after his impressive strike-rate for Olimpija Ljubljana in his native Slovenia, where scored 50 times in 112 games.
However, he managed just one goal for the Swiss outfit and a short loan spell at Armenia Bielefeld preceded his resurgence at Bratislava.
He has won three league titles in his career and is a Slovenia international.
