Champions League
2012-02-15 - Zenit vs Benfica
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Uefa Champions League round of 16, 1st leg
Venue: Stadion Petrovskiy, St Petersburg
Wednesday 15th February – Kickoff time: 18:00 GMT+1
Zenit St Petersburg
Zenit booked their place to this stage of the competition for the first time in their history on the expense of another Portuguese club, FC Porto. Zenit held Porto to a goalless draw in Portugal which was enough for them to progress from a group surprisingly won by Apoel.
Spaletti’s team won the domestic league at the end of the November, but the championship will continue with some additional games, as the league will switch to an autumn-spring rhythm.
Zenit will be looking to maintain their positive record against Portuguese opposition. In three fixtures, the Russians have won two and drawn the other. Porto lost here in the group stage, 3-1.
Aleksandr Anyukov, Danko Lazovic, Roman Shirokov and Aleksanr Bukharov have suffered minor injuries in the training period, but they should be fit to play. On the other hand, Portuguese midfielder
Danny will surely miss the match, he’s actually been ruled out for the rest of the season after a terrible knee ligaments injury, as will Vyacheslav Malafeev and Domenico Criscito.
Probable Zenit line-up :
Anyukov, Alves, Hubocan, Lombaerts
Zyryanov, Denisov, Shirokov
Faizulin, Kerzhakov, Lazovic
Benfica
Benfica has been brilliant this season, currently topping their domestic league with a five points advantage over Porto and they’ve also won their CL group, contributing to Manchester United’s elimination from the competition.
Striker Oscar Cardozo played an important role in this run, with the Paraguayan having bagged 20 goals for the club in all competitions this season, 11 in his last 10 appearances.
With draws at Trabzonspor and Twente in the season’s qualifying rounds, Benfica have suffered only one defeat in their last nine European away games. They won the away games against Basel and Otelul from the group stage to nil.
Emerson and Luisao started the weekend match against Maritimo, after recovering from thigh injuries, however, Javi Garcia has been ruled out for this match.
Probable Benfica line-up :
Pereira, Luisao, Garay, Emerson
Matic, Witsel
Gaitan, Aimar, Nolito
Cardozo
The Betting Verdict
The championship in Russia ended at the end of November, which means that Zenit have not played a competitive match since squeezing that crucial point in the goalless match at Porto on December 6.
However, forecasts suggest the temperature will be at around minus 15 degrees, which should make it difficult for the visitors to perform at their highest level. Despite the bad weather, the stadium is expected to be full, as this is the first time Zenit reached this stage of the competition.
Zenit has been impressive at home throughout the season, they’ve kept clean sheets in 5 of their last 6 home games in European competitions, only Porto managing to score in a match they’ve lost.
This shouldn’t be a high scoring affair, but under three goals are priced at 1.6, which is not tempting at all, so I suggest backing Zenit to take advantage of the fact that they are playing at home.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Zenit 1-0 Benfica
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
