Benfica vs Monaco Prediction: A 6/4 Bet Builder Double is our play

Benfica host Monaco for the second leg of their Champions League Playoffs on Tuesday night at 20:00 with live broadcast on TNT Sports 2 for viewers in the UK. 

Jamie Pacheco showed a good profit in the first leg and has a Bet Builder made up of corners and goals for the all-important second leg as he previews the action and takes us through his Benfica vs Monaco Predictions for us here on Betfred Insights...

*You can check out all of the Football Odds we offer over at betfred.com

Benfica 

An excellent 1-0 win away was exactly what Benfica would have hoped for from last week's trip to Monaco. If anything, they were guilty of not putting their foot on the accelerator after they were already up, and the Ligue 1 outfit had gone down to ten men. 

Al Musrati requested the referee to book a Benfica player for a foul. He was the one who ended up getting booked and it was his second, so off he went.  

Earlier Vangelis Pavlidis had scored a superb goal from a tight angle after getting the better of the man marking him to secure us yet another win - the third time in a row we backed him in one of my columns, this time at 21/10- to make it a good night for us, too.  

It did however come at a cost. Bruno Lage somewhat unnecessarily decided to bring on a half-fit Angel di Maria off the bench and he ended up hobbling off injured a few minutes later, also missing their narrow 1-0 win over Santa Clara at the weekend.  

New signing Bruma scored that goal and Lage was able to rest a few men who are likely to start here so it's obvious how much this competition means to the club and that Lage certainly doesn't think he can rest his laurels in the second leg. Florentino, however, is suspended.  

Likely XI: Trubin, Araujo, Otamendi, Silva, Carreras, Aursnes, Barreiro, Kocku, Pavlidis, Schjelderup, Arturkoglu.     

Monaco 

It's one thing losing to a good goal but what is less excusable is the indiscipline they were guilty of.  

In addition to Al-Musrati's needless sending-off, there were also bookings for Denis Zakaria and Vanderson that led to suspensions meaning they'll miss three men for the second leg as a result of indiscipline.  

Chris Mawissa, who was suspended himself for the first leg, returns but Aleksandr Golovin is still injured.  

All of which means Monaco have a big task on their hands here. At least they come into it on the back of a good result though, having beaten Nantes 7-1 at the weekend.  

Likely XI: Majecki, Kehrer, Salisu, Mawissa, Henrique, Camara, Coulibaly, Akliouche, Ben Seghir,Minamino, Biereth.   

Benfica vs Monaco Odds

Benfica are 5/6, implied probability of 54.5%. That's a better price than it first seems. Benfica have now beaten Monaco away from home twice this campaign so have clearly found a way to get the better of them.   

And let's remember that Monaco are missing three key players, which leaves big holes in a side that isn't exactly bursting with star quality to begin with.  

Many will feel it's not worth taking an odds-on price about a team who doesn't need to win but Benfica will surely feel the best route to going through is to score a couple of goals themselves rather than trying to keep Monaco out.  

It's 3/1 Monaco (25%) and 16/5 (23.8%) the draw but as I said, the Benfica win is the pick of the three.  

Bet Builders 

The solution to a win on this match may lie with a Bet Builder.  

Despite that high-scoring 3-2 between them a few months ago, this doesn't look like being a high-scoring game with Benfica looking to mostly manage their lead and trying to nick a goal, if possible, that would almost certainly settle the tie there and then. So, under 3.5 goals at 4/7 is a good starting point for the double.  

We also think Benfica should win the corners battle, at 8/13. They got seven to Monaco's two last week and seven to Monaco's four back in November. They're generally good at getting the most corners in the match and should have more possession, so we're pretty confident about that part of the bet.  

The Bet Builder comes to 6/4.

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Football Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Football hub page...