Benfica – AEK Athens FC SOCCER PICKS
Benfica and AEK Athens meet at Estádio do Sport Lisboa and Benfica (da Luz), in a match for this phase of the UEFA Champions League (Group Stage).
Benfica:
The home team is currently in the 3 rd position, with 4 points won, after 1 win, 1 draw and 3 losses. In the penultimate match, they tied in a home match against Ajax, by (1-1). In the last match, they lost in an away match against Bayern München, by (5-1). In the last match they played, for the Primeira Liga, they won against Vitória Setúbal by (0-1). In their last 4 home matches for the UEFA Champions League Benfica has a record of 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss. They have not been very strong defensively, since they have suffered goals in 8 of the last 9 matches, but their offense has scored frequently, since they have scored goals in 7 of the last 9 matches for this competition. There is a tendency for goals in their home matches, since 52 of the last 61 matches they have played have ended with Over 1,5 goals. In 9 matches for the competition, they have conceded the first goal 4 times and have only won 1 result.
Benfica is a club that has won the Champions League twice in its history and has been runner-up in the competition five times, as well as being the Portuguese team with the most titles of national champion. In the current season, the team has been having a rather irregular campaign in Group E, as it won only four of the fifteen points played, seven points behind the second classified and nine points behind the leader. In the last five games that Benfica played at home, for more than one competition, in all of them the team scored goals and in three of them scored more than 1.5 goals. We believe that in this game, to face a weaker team, Benfica will score goals and come out with a positive score.
AEK Athens:
The away team is currently in the 4 th position, without any points won, after 5 losses. In the penultimate match, they lost in an away match against Bayern München, by (2-0). In the last match, they lost in a home match against Ajax, by (0-2). In the last match they played, for the Super League, they beat Lamia at home by (2-0). In their last away game for the Super League, they lost by (2-1) against Panaitolikos. In the last 4 away league matches UEFA Champions League, AEK Athens has a record of 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses.
In this competition, he lost the last 5 games and did not win any of the last 6 that he played. The team has not been very strong defensively, since it has suffered goals in the last 9 games which it disputed in this competition. In their away matches there is a tendency for few goals, since 26 of the last 59 matches have ended with Under 1,5 goals and 39 out of 59 have ended with Under 2,5 goals. In 9 matches in this competition, he never got the comeback in the 6 games in which he suffered the first goal. In the last 9 away matches for all competitions there is 1 period that stands out: they have scored 3 of their 7 goals between minutes (31′-45 ‘).
The AEK is a club that never managed to conquer any European title and that never arrived in the phase to eliminate of any of the competitions, having as conquests of greater prominence of its history the twelve titles of the Super League of Greece. In the current season, the team went through two preliminary stages to reach the group stage of the Champions League, but ended up not conquering any point in the five rounds played so far, thus being in the last position of Group E. In the last five games that the AEK played as a visitor, for several competitions, four of them were scored more than 1.5 goals. We believe that the AEK, which has failed to win any game in the group stage of the Champions League, will have difficulties and will end up being defeated.
