Champions League Benfica vs PAOK Prediction
After eliminating Fenerbahçe with a 1-0 win at Luz and a 1-1 draw in Istanbul Benfica comes into the Champions League playoff to discuss access to the group stage of the millionaire event, something that will make the eagles fit something like 42 million euros.
After what the team began by showing in the second part of the official debut with Fener, the 70 minutes with Guimarães and the consistent showing in Turkey, behold Benfica make the best display of the 4 official games already played last weekend, in full Bessa, facing the difficult Boavista, with a well-earned 2-0 win over an opponent and a spot where they had not raised any points last season.
Next Saturday, the vertiginous rhythm of this beginning of season continues with the Lisbon derby against Sporting, for Liga.
PAOK restructured in recent years and made the most of Olympiakos’s break last season to finish the Greek League in 2nd place, just behind AEK champion.
The only official games of the new season were to count for the second and third qualifying rounds of the Champions League against Basel and Spartak Moscow.
The Greeks beat Basel 2-1 at home and Switzerland 3-0, with the Russians winning 3-2 at home and 0-0 in Moscow.
In the pre-season, the only defeat against Nordsjaelland (1-2), but for the team to make goals, although they also suffered always (Anderlecht, 2-2, Steaua Bucharest, 2-1, Gent, 1-1, Antwerp, 3-1, De Graafschap, 2-1).
It is true that the PAOK comes in an excellent moment of form, but no less true they have not yet faced a Benfica-level team.
They knocked Basel out of a bad phase for the Swiss team, which even culminated with the coach’s dismissal and managed to overtake Spartak essentially for the first leg, where in the first part suffer two goals and went from 0-2 to 3-2. In Russia, it should be remembered that Spartak played in numerical inferiority from minute 33, something that made the task much easier for the Greeks.
For this game, Benfica know that, in the image of what happened to Fenerbahçe, it is vital to win and not suffer and preferably win by more than a goal difference, something that could have happened to the Turks.
The PAOK can even cause some scares on the counterattack, but defensively it will not hold a Benfica who has been at a great level, with Pizzi and Gedson in great form, Salvio and Cervi to score points and a Ferreyra who comes more confident after first goal with the Benfica shirt on Bessa.
Betting Tip: Benfica over 1.5 goals
Odds: 1.48
