Benfica welcome Real Madrid to the Estadio da Luz for the Champions League knockout round play-off first leg on Tuesday.
The Portuguese side secured their play-off spot after beating Madrid 4-2 in their previous meeting, denying their opponents automatic qualification for the round of 16.
Match preview
Benfica struggled during the league phase, but will take encouragement from their recent performance against Madrid.
While Madrid dominated possession, Benfica were the better attacking side. However, they need to defend better to stand a chance of qualifying for the round of 16.
Madrid thrashed Real Sociedad 4-1 on Saturday, extending their winning streak to three matches. Despite this, their performances remain unconvincing.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s side are reliant on Kylian Mbappe’s brilliance. The Frenchman netted twice against Benfica last time out and is the tournament’s top scorer with 13 goals.
Madrid are aiming to progress beyond the play-offs for the second consecutive season, after defeating Manchester City 6-3 on aggregate last term.
Across four meetings with Benfica in the competition, the Spanish giants have won once and lost three.
Team news
Richard Rios, Fredrik Aursnes, and Alexander Bah are ruled out for the hosts. Joao Veloso and Samuel Soares are doubtful.
Jude Bellingham, Eder Militao, Rodrygo and Raul Asencio are unavailable for Madrid. The latter pair are suspended.
Predicted line-ups
Benfica (4-2-3-1): Anatoliy Trubin, Tomas Araujo, Antonio Silva, Nicolas Otamendi, Samuel Dahl, Leandro Barreiro, Enzo Barrenechea, Gianluca Prestianni, Georgiy Sudakov, Andreas Schjelderup, Vangelis Pavlidis.
Real Madrid (4-3-1-2): Thibaut Courtois, Alvaro Carreras, Dean Huijsen, Antonio Rudiger, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde, Arder Guler, Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe.
Prediction
We predict a 3-1 victory for Madrid.
Stats from sofascore.com, whoscored.com, & uefa.com.
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