Barcelona vs Benfica Lisbon Prediction & Betting Tips - Champions League

Prediction published on 20/11/2021, 21:32  by Daniel Ngulu | Modified on 20/11/2021 at 22:32 in Champions League Predictions

Some sense of normalcy is back at Barcelona and they will hope to rise in the Champions League when they host Benfica in a very tricky clash. Back to back wins Dynamo Kiev have seen Barcelona leap above Benfica in Group E. They have six points, two ahead of their visitors and will be targeting a win to confirm their place in the next round. Memphis Depay’s penalty goal in La Liga saw Barca beat Catalan rivals Espanyol 1-0 in Xavi Hernandez’s first game in charge, and some positive energy could be seen in the performance. They are now four unbeaten, scored in all of them, won two and drew two, with two clean sheets. Compared to their away run, this season they’ve done much better at home. Their only losses in the 10 matches at home this season were against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. They have six wins in the 10 home matches.

Benfica are coming from two big wins; they thrashed Sporting Braga 6-1 in the Primeira Liga and more recently saw off Pacos Ferreira 4-1. They’ve scored in each of their last five matches and four of the matches have produced over 2.5 goals. Benfica will go to this game hoping to repeat their 3-0 first leg win over Barcelona, but they’ll meet a more organized team and the fact that they have no clean sheet in five matches makes it tougher. Twice in the last five matches, Benfica have conceded three or more goals; in their last game in the Champions League, they were thrashed 5-2 by Bayern and for them to stay in the competition, they have to at least avoid defeat here. A draw would be a great result for the Portuguese side, with Barcelona next heading to Germany to face Bayern as Benfica prepare for Dynamo Kiev at home.