Nice vs Benfica Prediction: 16/5 Best Bet to Back at the Allianz Riviera

Nice host Benfica on Wednesday night in a crucial Champions League first leg Qualifier with prize money and bragging rights very at much at stake in southern France.  

Jamie Pacheco talks you through all the vital stats, team news and odds, also giving you his best tip for the match at a juicy 3/1, which is his top Nice vs Benfica Prediction...  

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

Nice 

Nice ended the Ligue 1 season in third place, winning their last game of the season 6-0 to finish level on points with Lille but above them due to a superior goal difference. For the record, 1-0 would have been enough on the final day of the season because they were already considerably ahead of them on goal difference going into the last round of matches.  

Their good domestic finish was helped by the fact they exited the Europa League after a really poor effort where they finished 35th of 36, with only Qarabag of Azerbaijan below them in a campaign where they managed just three draws from eight matches, losing the other five.  

Forward pair Evann Guessand of the Ivory Coast and Frenchman Gaetan Laborde were their go-to men for goals last season with 12 and 11 domestic goals respectively, but Laborde is rumoured to be leaving with a move to the Saudi Arabian Second Division on the cards, so may not feature at all here.  

Defender Jean-Clair Todibo was on loan at West Ham last season, playing in 27 Premier League matches and has now moved permanently for a fee of £32,800. That's excellent business for a club like Nice but they'll miss him and their Europa League campaign last season suggests they struggle to keep clean sheets in Europe. And that was in the Europa League, not the Champions League.   

Benfica  

I covered all of Benfica's matches last season in the Champions League and it was a right rollercoaster ride that included wins by 4-0 against Atletico Madrid, 3-2 away at Monaco, and a 2-0 away win at Juventus on the last day of the Group Stage that allowed them to qualify for the Playoffs. They also lost 5-4 at home to Barcelona, drew 3-3 at home to Monaco to progress to that Play-Off and lost 3-1 in Barcelona. So as you can see, there were some pretty entertaining matches when they were involved and a policy of going for high-scoring matches or picking in-form Benfica forwards certainly paid dividends last time out.  

On the domestic front they finished as runners-up to Sporting Lisbon in both the league and Portuguese Cup, but they'd beaten them in the League Cup a few months earlier and beat them 1-0 on Thursday night in the Portuguese Super Cup.  

Angel Di Maria has left after a largely successful second spell at the club and so did Alvaro Carreras, the adventurous left-back who wasn't deemed good enough to play at Manchester United but was deemed good enough to warrant a place in Real Madrid's starting XI: they paid £43 million for him.  

Enzo Barrenechea has arrived on loan from Aston Villa and the impressive Colombian all-round midfielder Richard Rios has joined from Palmeiras, with much expected of him this season in terms of breaking up play and using his passing skills to launch counter-attacks.  

Nice vs Benfica Odds

Nice are 15/8, implied probability of 34.8% with Benfica 6/5 (45.5%) and the draw 23/10 (30%).  

That's a pretty poor price about Nice, who failed to win any of their eight Europa League matches last season, many of them against far weaker sides than what Benfica are.  

Benfica also played Monaco twice last season away from home, who by the way finished 1 point better off than Nice in Ligue 1, beating them 3-2 away in the Group Stages and 1-0 in the Playoff Round, so they'll have good memories of playing in France.   

Benfica could be good for a win here but it could pay to look for a bigger price than the straight win.  

Match Result and Both Teams to Score  

We're pretty confident that Benfica are the better side but the straight win looks a bit on the short side, so we'll look at other bets that reflect our interpretation of the match.  

All of Nice's last nine matches at home in Europe have ended up with both teams scoring so that's a good starting point and that Benfica are 3/1 to win with both teams scoring looks a good choice.  

As we know, Benfica were involved in plenty of high-scoring affairs in this competition last year and produced some good results on the road, so that 3/1 makes appeal.   

Anytime Goalscorers  

Vangelis Pavlidis produced a fair few winners for us last season on the Anytime Goalscorer market and despite interest from some of Europe's top clubs in acquiring his services, Benfica have presumably decided enough is enough for this season in terms of letting key players go and that they need to keep him.   

He's 7/5 to score here and with Di Maria no longer on penalty duty, he'll presumably be on penalties for the season, which is a bonus.  

Elsewhere., that man Guessand is 21/10 to score anytime and 13/2 to be the first goalscorer.  

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...