We derive the part of the Lagrangian for the sigma model on the eta-deformed AdS_5 x S^5 space which is quadratic in fermions and has the full dependence on bosons. We then show that there exists a field redefinition which brings the corresponding Lagrangian to the standard form of type IIB Green-Schwarz superstring. Reading off the corresponding RR couplings, we observe that they fail to satisfy the supergravity equations of motion, despite the presence of kappa-symmetry. However, in a special scaling limit our solution reproduces the supergravity background found by Maldacena and Russo. Further, using the fermionic Lagrangian, we compute a number of new matrix elements of the tree level world-sheet scattering matrix. We then show that after a unitary transformation on the basis of two-particle states which is not one-particle factorisable, the corresponding T-matrix factorises into two equivalent parts. Each part satisfies the classical Yang-Baxter equation and coincides with the large tension limit of the q-deformed S-matrix.