An exciting match will be presented in the seventh week of the 2024-25 Champions League. The strong Portuguese team, Benfica will host the Catalan giant, Barcelona at the Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Wednesday (22/1/2025).
This match is crucial for both teams who are fighting to secure a position in the top eight. A win will ensure they qualify for the last 16. However, if they only draw, Barca will have to fight again on matchday 8 when they host Atalanta.
The latest Champions League format does provide automatic tickets to the last 16 for the eight best teams in the final standings. While the other eight tickets will be contested by the 16 teams ranked 9-24 through a play-off scheme.
The visiting team, Barcelona is in high confidence ahead of the match against Benfica. The reason is, Hansi Flick’s team has just won its last four matches. In fact, Blaugrana did not concede in the last two matches.
This positive record is certainly a good capital for Lamile Yamal and colleagues against Benfica. Despite the on fire performance, the away match against Benfica is not easy for Los Cules . Moreover, Barca has never won against Benfica in its last three meetings.
Azulgrana recorded only two draws and one defeat when playing against Benfica. In addition to zero wins, Barcelona also failed to score a goal against Benfica. So clearly, Benfica is not an opponent to be underestimated.
Barca’s fight to win in Lisbon is made all the more difficult by Benfica’s high confidence. Bruno Lage’s team has won its last four games, including a 4-0 win over Famalicao last weekend.
Benfica is known to have a sharp attack. Proven they were able to score a total of 53 goals in 18 domestic league matches this season. A similar trend is seen in the Champions League, where their six matches produced a total of 17 goals.
However, their defense is often a weak point. It is no wonder that Benfica’s performance in the Champions League is still inconsistent, aka unstable. From six matches, As Augias only won one and is now in 15th place in the standings.
Looking at the condition of both teams, Barca is still worthy of being favored to win. The problem for Barcelona is that they have never beaten the Eagles in the last three meetings. Will Barcelona break that bad record? Let’s watch together!
Estimated line-ups
Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Alexander Bah, Antonio Silva, Nicolas Otamendi, Alvaro Carreras, Florentino Luis, Orkun Kokçu, Fredrik Aursnes, Ángel Di Maria, Kerem Akturkoglu, Vangelis Pavlidis
Barcelona: Inaki Pena; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde, Marc Casado, Pedri, Gavi, Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski
