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Benfica vs Bayern Munich

UCL 2018-19 – Benfica vs Bayern Munich Match Preview




Bayern Munich are set to begin yet another UEFA Champions League campaign as they take on Benfica away from home in Portugal! Bayern have so far shown fantastic, free scoring form and are tipped as big favourites here however Benfica are no pushover and have always been a problem on their own pitch, just ask Bayern about the 2016 Quarter Final tie when they drew 2-2 at Benfica. We anticipate a very interesting match here!


Key Facts


Benfica have made a good start of the season as they’re top of their domestic league with 3W 1D 0L and 10 points.


Benfica have been showing good goal scoring form with 19 goals in 9 competitive games (10 in 4 in the league and 7 in 4 in the CL qualifiers and 2 in the cup game)


Benfica’s current top scorer is Pizzi with 6 goals across all competitions. He’s top scorer in their domestic league and has two goals in CL qualifiers.


Benfica have not been that convincing defensively. Only kept 3 clean sheets in 9 competitive games.


Last season Benfica lost all 6 games in their UCL campaign and are desperate to improve on that.


Bayern Munich once again got off to a flying start to the season with 3 wins from 3 and are top of the league


Bayern have scored 9 goals in those 3 games. They’ve scored 3 in each game against 3 tough opponents in Hoffenheim, Stuttgart and Leverkusen.


Lewandowski, Muller and Robben are all tied as Bayern’s highest scorers in the league with 2 goals each. However Lewandowski scored in the cup tie too so he’s the undisputed top scorer for Bayern this season again with 3.


Bayern are unbeaten in 5 straight away Champions League games winning 4 and drawing 1. They beat Sevilla, Besiktas, Anderlecht and Celtic while drawing with Real Madrid. Scored 11 goals in those 5 games


Last time Benfica and Bayern met in the UCL was in 2016 Quarter Final. Benfica made it tough for Bayern losing 2-3 on aggregate. The game in Portugal was a 2-2 draw.


Team News


Benfica: Benfica don’t have any new absentees for this match. Jonas, Corchia and Krovinovic are all still out but they’ve been out for a while now and that shouldn’t have much impact on Benfica going into this game. Elsewhere it’s a healthy Benfica side. Coach Rui Vitoria has used 4-3-3 quite often this season and may opt for it again. We can expect a cautious approach from Benfica given Bayern’s quality but they are definitely a team that is capable of creating chances themselves through counter attacks and in general good play. Pizzi is the main player to watch from Benfica’s squad as the midfielder has been banging goals for fun and getting assists on the way. Benfica will be hopeful that they can do better than their previous Champions League campaign.


Bayern Munich: Bayern have been hit with a bit of an injury crisis which isn’t too bad but some key players are out. Tolisso picked up an injury during the weekend’s match against Leverkusen therefore we should expect James Rodriguez to come back into the side for him. Furthermore, Rafinha also got himself hurt but he’d probably not start anyway due to Alaba being rested during the weekend. Ribery and Goretzka are questionable meanwhile Coman is definitely out. Hummels is expected to return into the side and get in over Sule. Because Bayern are such a deep team, these injuries may not prove to be too much of a problem. Robben and Muller are going to be key if Bayern want to pick up a win here as they’ve shown fantastic form recently.


Betting Tips and Predictions


This shapes up to be a game that has potential to have quite a few goals in it. Because Benfica aren’t defending that well, you can expect Bayern to create a ton of chances, they still have the likes of Thiago, James, Robben, Lewandowski, Muller which is a ton of world class attacking talent and on the current form that Bayern are in you wouldn’t bet against them bagging 2 or 3 goals in Portugal. Benfica themselves are a very capable side especially at home, they themselves could for sure bag a goal because its not like Bayern are rock solid defensively themselves with just one clean sheet in three games in Bundesliga. Over 3.0 goals at 2.05 and BTTS – yes at 1.75 are our picks in terms of goals. Also we’re going to back a Bayern -1 AH at 1.85. Although Benfica are a tough nut at home, Bayern are a whole class above them as a team and they have so much European experience to the point where you simply have to back them in these types of games. If they win by just one money’s back but we see this as a 2 goal win for Bayern. 1-3 seems like a very likely score line here.




Match Odds (TonyBet)


Benfica Win – 6.85


Draw – 4.45



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