Bento not blaming weakened Bolton March 13 2008
Sporting Lisbon coach Paulo Bento has refused to condemn Bolton boss Gary Megson for leaving several star players at home for the teams' UEFA Cup clash.
Megson goes into the second leg of his side's last-16 tie at the Estadio Jose Alvalade with one eye on the Premier League battle at Wigan on Sunday.
Captain Kevin Nolan and Jussi Jaaskelainen, who both missed the 1-1 draw at the Reebok Stadium last Thursday with back injuries, are joined on the sidelines by Kevin Davies, Matt Taylor, Andy O'Brien, Ivan Campo, El Hadji Diouf and Ricardo Gardner.
Gavin McCann, who scored Bolton's opener a week ago, is suspended, while Tamir Cohen, Grzegorz Raziak and Gretar Steinsson are all ineligible.
Yet Bento is unconcerned and said: "It's Bolton's problem, not mine.
"I am focusing on my own problems, and what I want to do is make sure we get through to the quarter-finals.
"We only have one objective, and that is to play our football, to play as well as we did in the second half of last week's game.
"So Bolton's attitude is not important to us, and we will take to the pitch with our best possible team. How the Bolton coach faces this is up to him."
Argentina midfielder Leandro Romagnoli was caught unawares when informed Wanderers would be fielding a weakened line-up.
As far as he is concerned, the game is vital to their season, stating: "I didn't know the Bolton coach's priority was the Premier League and not the UEFA Cup.
"But we consider all competitions important, and that's why we are eager to win this match and progress to the quarter-finals, as we are eager to win all our matches."
Bento, though, is clearly a coach under pressure and has come in for criticism as a result of his side's struggle in the Portuguese league this season.
Sporting are currently fifth, lowly by their standards, 20 points adrift of leaders Porto and six behind Benfica, who are holding the final automatic qualifying place for next season's Champions League.
Although Sporting are in the final of one domestic cup competition and the semi-final of another, Bento has detractors who feel his team should be doing far better in the league.
"It's a pity people fail to look positively on the competitions in which we are doing well, and instead look at those in which we are not doing so well," added Bento.
"Of course, we want to win every competition we enter, and while we cannot win the national championship this season, we want to do well in the other competitions.
"I tell my players never to give up, that we always fight to the end to win and for whatever is in our reach."
Leading goalscorer Liedson is available again after missing last week's first leg with a thigh injury.