Why are Sporting CP playing against Atalanta in the Europa League on Wednesday and not Thursday?

For as long as most of us can remember, the Champions League takes centre stage on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in Europe, with the Europa League, and subsequently the Europa Conference League, in the thick of the soccer action on Thursdays. Now and again though, the odd fixture from UEFA’s second or third club competitions gets moved forward, which is the case this week as Sporting Clube de Portugal take on Atalanta on Wednesday (6 March).

Sporting and Atalanta set for second European double header

The Portuguese league leaders face the Serie A side at Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon for the second time this season after they were already paired together in the Europa League group stage. Atalanta ran out 2-1 winners on that occasion back in October, a result which helped them win Group D and progress directly to the round of 16, which starts this week.

By finishing second in the section, Sporting were forced to go through the knockout round play-offs, where they defeated Swiss team Young Boys 4-2 on aggregate. With no restrictions as to who participants could be drawn against in the last 16, they ended up setting themselves up for two more games against familiar Italian faces.

Benfica host Rangers in Europa League round-of-16 first leg

The first leg of the tie was moved forward due to the fact fellow Lisbon-based club Benfica were also drawn to start their round-of-16 tie at home.

UEFA does not permit teams from the same city to host matches on the same day, for reasons pertaining to safety, availability of resources (particularly police) and infrastructure.

Benfica will take on Rangers, of Scotland, at the “normal” Europa League time of 8pm local time (3pm ET) on Thursday (7 March), which has seen Sporting’s game against Atalanta moved to 5:45pm local time (12:45pm ET) on Wednesday (6 March).