Benfica vs Feyenoord Prediction: Back the Eagles to score in both halves

It's Benfica vs Feyenoord in the Champions League on Wednesday, kick-off time 20:00, with a live broadcast on TNT Sports 8.   

Jamie Pacheco was 2/3 last time out as Benfica beat Atletico and was 2/2 the match before at Red Star Belgrade so comes into this match showing plenty of profits on the Eagles' Champions League matches this season. A Bet Builder and a wager on the hots scoring in both halves are his selections in this one as he takes us through his Benfica vs Feyenoord Predictions in his betting preview for us at Betfred Insights...

Benfica 

Benfica have been good to us this season in the Champions league.  

After winning bets at 11/8 and 13/8 in Matchday 1 against Red Star, we then had 2/3 against Atlético Madrid last time out with winners on a 6/4 Bet Builder and Kerem Arturkoglu scoring at 16/5; Vangelis Pavidis, our other bet, didn't score but hit the post so we were very close indeed to a perfect 5/5 sweep. So, plenty of profits and let's try to keep that up here.  

With internationals and a round of Cup fixtures since that remarkable 4-0 win against Atletico, they haven't played any league fixtures since that big Champions League win but ran out 2-0 victors in the Cup at the weekend with German international Jan-Niklas Beste scoring both goals for a much-changed side.  

It means that since taking over, Bruno Lage has won all his six games in charge. With Sporting boasting an 100% record in the league this season it's going to be tough to overhaul them even at this stage but that's a problem to worry about another day. Either way, it's likely they'll prioritise the Champions League anyway with that huge prize money always so crucial to a club like Benfica.  

There are no injury worries or suspensions for Lage to deal with, who has a full set of players to choose from.  

Possible XI:  Trubin, Carreras, Silva, Otamendi, Araujo, Kokcu, Florentino, Aursnes, Di Maria Pavlidis, Arturkoglu. 

Feyenoord 

It's been a bit of a mixed start so far for Feyenoord with four wins and two draws in the league. That doesn't sound too bad but it's worth pointing out that PSV, coincidentally in action against Benfica's rivals Sporting on Tuesday, have won all eight of their games so are already a massive 11 points ahead of fourth-placed Feyenoord. A bit like with Benfica, that looks like a big gap to close.  

It's been a similar story of mixed results in this competition, too. They were thrashed 4-0 by an extremely impressive Baer Leverkusen but hit back to beat Girona 3-2 in a game that had a bit of everything.  

Part of the problem is they don't have a particularly prolific striker at the moment. Three players have scored three goals so far this season, but no-one has got more than that. Of course, there's nothing wrong with sharing the goals around rather than being too over-reliant on just one player. But then again, a man who often pops up with a goal when you really need one is a priceless asset.  

They're fresh from a 5-1 win at the weekend where, true to form, five different players scored.  

Possible XI: Wellenreuther; Lotomba, Trauner, Hancko, Bueno; Timber, Hwang, Milambo; Osman, Ueda, Paixao

Benfica vs Feyenoord Odds

You'd have to go back to 1972 for the last time these two played each other in a competitive match. For what it's worth, it was in the European Cup with the Dutch winning 1-0 at home but Benfica beating them 5-1 at home to g through. All of which is obviously of very limited relevance.  

But a closer look reveals Benfica beat them 5-0 (!) in a friendly in July of this year.  

Benfica are 8/15 which looks about right. For those who like that sort of thing, that's implied probability of 65%.   

It's 100/30 the draw (23%) and 5/1 (16.7%) on an away win.  

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

To Score in both halves  

One of the hallmarks of Lage's success has been to get his side to score plenty of goals.  

Since his first match in charge, they've scored: 4, 2, 3, 5 and 3 goals in their games and only in the game where they scored '2', against Red Star, they didn't score in both halves.  

I much prefer the 23/20 that Benfica get at least a goal in each half than the 8/15 they score over 1.5 goals, so that's our starting bet for the game.  

Bet Builder 

Another feature of Lage's management has been Benfica getting more corners than their opponents in matches. Only against Red Star were they 'out-cornered' so to speak. For the record, it's not that they get lots of corners or else we'd look for a bet along those lines; it's that they get more than their opponents. Given they're likely to have far more of the ball and pose much more of an attacking threat and the 4/9 they get more corners here looks a pretty safe wager.  

And we return to Akturkoglu for our second part of the Bet Builder. Not because we have a soft spot for him after our 16/5 winner on him last time out but rather because of his price.  

That man Vangelis Pavlidis has just two goals in nine matches this season and didn't score in their last two when they racked up five against Gil Vicente and four against Atletico. Yet he's just 21/20 to get a goal here.  

In contrast, Arturkoglu has six in 10 appearances and has already scored in both Champions League games so far. True that Pavlidis plays slightly further up the pitch than the Turkey international, but things don't always work like that in terms of who gets more goals.  

Considering veteran Angel di Maria – he of the remarkable 145 caps for Argentina - has also only scored two and is only so slightly bigger in price (21/10) than Arturkoglu, and you can see why odds of 2/1 on the latter make far more appeal.