Champions League
2012-09-19 - Celtic vs Benfica
A Sports Betting Pick by Addicted
Football : UEFA : Champions League
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012, 7:45PM GMT
PREVIEW
Celtic suffered a bit of a slip-up in the game before this, losing to St. Johnstone 2-1. In direct contrast, Benfica come here not just with 2 straight wins, but dominant ones at that, trouncing Setubal 5-0 away before a 3-0 win in their last match, against Nacional.
The Scottish champions are back in the Champions League after a 4 year absence, having participated in this tournament 6 times before. Benfica have not been out for that long, and so there is more experience within this team, which gives them the edge, despite being the road team.
You will remember Benfica were in the group containing Manchester United, and helped knock them out to reach the quarter-finals themselves. Judging from the way they have been playing domestically, banging in 8 goals in the last 2 wins and not even conceding, it's going to be hard for Celtic to even get a point here, which would be something to be proud of.
There are a lot of stats flying about about previous meetings which don't matter as it was from way back, so I'm not going to fill that in here as it's a waste of time. Celtic are said to be maybe a bit affected by the absence of Rangers, who have been sent to the lower leagues and it's very true that it affects good teams performances when the incentive isn't there, the motivation that comes from being chased by another good side.
Benfica have experience, and lots of it coming to the UK. They've come here and given Manchester United a hell of a time, so Celtic is a step down in quality. Benfica may have only won 4 of their last 26 away games in the Champions League. They'll make that 5 tonight.
BETTING VERDICT
Got to go with Benfica are 2.20 which is fair value.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Benfica
