Benfica take on the visitors Monaco in the second leg of UEFA Champions League round of 16. First leg result: 1-0. The match will be played on Tuesday, February 18th at Estádio da Luz (Lisbon).
Benfica invited Roger Schmidt to the coaching post in 2022, and he managed to take the championship title at the very first attempt. But in the next Primeira Liga, Sporting still won the race for the "gold" from its neighbor. Nevertheless, the specialist was fired closer to autumn, after the new season began - and brought misfires. His successor, Bruno Lage, did not particularly improve the situation - even after the blow, which was the abrupt departure of Ruben Amorim to Manchester United, the "green-whites" retained the lead. However, they were beaten, on penalties, in the League Cup final. And in the Champions League, the Portuguese reached the playoffs. True, out of 13 points, almost half, 6, were taken in the first rounds, by Atletico and Crvena Zvezda. However, in the last match in January, the decisive 2-0 was taken on the field of Juventus. In France, they managed to open the scoring, and there the opponent was left in the minority - and so they won 1-0.
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"Monaco" is also not showing peak results. Before the start of last season, the "Monegasques" invited Adi Hutter to the coaching post. And he not only ensured the progress of the team, which had not made it to the European Cups at all before - they rose to the vice-championship. Now, by the way, not everything is working out there: they naturally lost to PSG in the Super Cup, were eliminated from the cup, lost on penalties to the now weak "Reims", and 2nd place in Ligue 1 France looks increasingly unattainable. But at the same time, in the Champions League, Golovin and company started with 3 victories (and started with 2-1 against "Barcelona") and 10 points in 4 matches. At the same time, there were defeats to Benfica, Arsenal and Inter, and they received 3 goals from each. But the 1-0 with Aston Villa in January guaranteed passage to the playoffs. But they immediately lost at home, albeit minimally.
In 2014, the Eagles won in Lisbon after a goalless away draw. And at the end of autumn, they scored 3-2 away. Well, the French do not know how to play against these Portuguese! We expect the Eagles to win at home. On the other hand, it is important for Trubin and company not to lose, so they will try not to concede. We are also betting on "total under 3.5 goals".
Prediction for the match: Under 3.5 scored goals.
