Brugge take on the visitors Benfica in the first leg of Champions League 1/8-final round. The match will be played on Wednesday, February 15th at Jan Breydel Stadion (Brugge).
Brugge have won 3 of their 18 league titles in recent years. Even the departure of Clément did not prevent from eventually getting around the upstart Union. Under Philip, it turned out well in European competitions. Last autumn, however, everything worked out just in the Champions League, especially at first - the club suddenly beat all 3 opponents in the group in succession, and they were Porto, Atlético and Bayer. Yes, then there were 2 draws and a crushing defeat at the “Dragau”, which did not prevent us from reaching the playoffs. But here in the Jupiler League, quite unexpectedly, the permanent leader and the grandee of recent years cannot really recover. There are too many, as for such a favorite, defeats. A new mentor, Scott Parker, has already appeared, but even with the Englishman, the team has too many draws. So ended the last match, with the “Union” – another draw, 1-1.
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Benfica, unlike their next opponent, just can't bring the last years into the asset. They invited a venerable mentor, Jorge Jesus, signed status players, but to no avail - so the coach's resignation a year ago did not surprise anyone. Almost the only serious success then was reaching the playoffs of the last Champions League, especially since in the dispute for such a “pass” it turned out to bypass Barcelona. With a new mentor, Roger Schmid, the giant from Lisbon looks very solid. She is unconditionally the leader in Primeira - there were 17 wins in 20 rounds with a single defeat, with Braga. By the way, last week we played with the “archbishops” again, but in the Cup format. And again it turned out to be a failure - only after a draw in regular and extra time, the visitors from Lisbon lost in a penalty shootout. At the same time, the Portuguese did not slow down in the international arena. Again, Benfica turned out to be stronger than the recognized favorite, Juventus - moreover, the Italians were beaten in both matches (as well as the outsider, Maccabi). Moreover, with PSG it turned out to play 1-1 twice. As a result, the French are now forced to butt heads with Bayern itself in the 1/8 finals.
Yes, the clubs do not belong to the giants of the European level. But they play in the Champions League regularly. So it's surprising that they avoided fights with each other until now. The Belgians are now much weaker than when they created sensations in the “group”. We recommend betting that Benfica will win here.
Prediction for the match: Benfica to win.
