Benfica vs Qarabag Prediction: Back Benfica to win both halves at 11/8

Benfica host FK Qarabag in their opening game of the Champions League 2025-26 season, with a kick-off time of 20:00 on Tuesday night. TNT Sports 3 will be broadcasting the game live in the UK.

Jamie Pacheco talks you through the team news, form and his one bet ahead of this one, a nice 13/10 shot as he takes us through his top Benfioca vs Qarabag Prediction...

Benfica 

Benfica negotiated two somewhat tough rounds of qualifying to get this far with wins over  a decent Nice side and an even more competitive Fenerbahçe one, drawing 0-0 way and getting the job done in Lisbon, also providing us with a nice 7/4 earner on the win to nil market.  

Benfica have mostly been good this season, winning the Portuguese Super Cup against Sporting Lisbon before picking up three consecutive wins in the Portuguese League in among those good results in the Champions League, before a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Santa Clara at the weekend, when 1-0 up and playing against 10-men.  

No excuse for that and those two lost points may well come and bite them in the backside later on in the season.  

FK Qarabag 

The Azerbaijan outfit had plenty of work of their own to do to get to this stage, beating Shelbourne 3-0 away and 1-0 at home, before another away win (1-0) was followed by another comprehensive victory over Shkendija (5-1) at home.  

And at the last hurdle they got the better of Ferencvaros, proving their away form was to be respected once again with yet another victory on enemy soil (3-1) before losing the return leg 3-2, but having done enough in the first leg to get through. Just.    

Things haven't been so good on the domestic front with an away loss to Karvan and a home draw to Zira, but you'd think their minds were on this one.  

Match Winner odds

Benfica are 2/9, which is implied probability of 81.8%. No surprises there.  

Qarabag are 14/1, a big price on paper but one we're not particularly interested in (6.7%) while the draw is 6/1, also a price we don't like. Benfica should win this one way or another.   

*You can check out Betfred's full market on this match by visiting our Benfica vs Qarabag Odds page on betfred.com

To win both Halves 

If that short 2/9 doesn't do it for you, or me for that matter, then how about the 13/10 that Benfica win both halves?   

Yes, that's a far more respectable price and one that we like because we think there's a big gulf in class between these two sides. We also think that Benfica will be seeing the bigger picture and will already be thinking about a big win and priceless healthy goal difference, even as early as this match, so they'll be looking to win it as soon and as comfortably as possible.  

Benfica to win both halves is our sole bet for the match at 11/8. 

Anytime Goalscorers  

No prizes for guessing that Vangelis Pavlidis is the favourite here at 7/10 to score anytime, with those odds increasing to 11/4 on him being first goalscorer, or last goalscorer. 

Franjo Ivanovic is 9/10 to score anytime and a decent 10/3 to be first goalscorer.  

We've highlighted the somewhat inflated odds on F Aursnes before, this time at 10/3 to score anytime, but we'll swerve him ahead of this one. Skipper Nicolas Otamendi, always a threat from set-pieces, is also of interest at 5/1 to score anytime an 16/1 for first goalscorer honours.  

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Jamie Pacheco Football P/L 2025 (Excludes 3-3-3 column):  

• Points Staked: 5 
• Points Returned: 8.25  
• Current P/L: +3.25