Monaco take on the visitors Benfica in the first leg of UEFA Champions League round of 16. The match will be played on Wednesday, February 12th at Stade Louis II (Monaco).
"Monaco" is trying to demonstrate a high level. Since the summer of 2023, "Monegasques" have been playing under the leadership of Adi Hutter. This specialist immediately not only returned his charges to European competitions, but also took second place with them in the final Ligue 1 table, losing only to PSG. Now Golovin and company are trying to defend those positions, although, of course, they are not succeeding in everything, and the competition for the vice-championship, especially with Marseille, will last until the last rounds. But, of course, the Champions League also has an effect. The French returned there successfully, immediately winning (albeit in the majority) against Barcelona. Then they added victories over Crvena Zvezda and Bologna with a 2-2 draw in Zagreb with Dinamo. And, perhaps, having decided that the main tasks were accomplished, then the footballers of Rybolovlev's brainchild lost at home to Benfica and suffered two defeats, 0-3, from Arsenal and Inter. However, in January, the first thing they did was beat Aston Villa 1-0, reaching the playoffs early.
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Benfica were strong in 2022/2023, Roger Schmidt's first season in Portugal. Then they went far in the Champions League and won the Primeira Liga. Then, however, there was a rollback, both in European competitions and in the domestic arena, where they lost the race for the title to Sporting. So it is quite natural that after the first failures in the new, current competition, the German was fired. However, even under Bruno Lage, they are still lagging behind the neighboring "lions". But they beat them in the League Cup, winning the final in a penalty shootout. And in the Champions League, the Portuguese, in addition to the "Monegasques", also won against "Crvena Zvezda", "Atletico" and, in the last round, "Juventus", also finishing 0-0 with "Bologna". But there were also defeats, both to "Feyenoord" and "Bayern", and with "Barcelona" in January, leading 3-1 and 4-2, they lost with a decisive goal in the 96th minute.
10 years before the aforementioned victory, in 2014, also in the Champions League, the "eagles" after a goalless draw in France won 1-0 at home. Both teams will try to win, so it won't be boring - we expect "total over 2.5 goals" again.
Prediction for the match: Over 2.5 scored goals.
