Benfica vs Otelul Galati
Football: UCL group stage, Group C
Venue: Estadio Da Luz, Lisbon
Wednesday 7th December – Kickoff time: 21:45 GMT+2

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Benfica

Benfica is already qualified for the best 16, but they’ll need a victory against bottom-placed Otelul to be the winners of the group C.

The Portuguese side has not finished in the top of their UCL group since 1995, so this is the perfect opportunity to do so. If the other fixture of the group ends in a draw then thanks to the superior head to head records Benfica will finish top even if they only draw against Otelul.

Coach Jorge Jesus declared that Benfica will play with their best squad, however Maxi Pereira cannot feature is serving a one match ban for collecting yellow cards, while Luisao and Enzo Perez are both injured.

Pablo Aimar may be rested, he’s one yellow card away from missing Benfica’s next match, as are Artur and Garay, but both are still expected to feature.

Probable Benfica line-up :

Artur
Amorim, Jardel, Garay, Emerson
Javi Garcia, Witsel
Gaitan, Matic, Nolito
Cardozo

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Otelul Galati

Otelul is looking to secure their first point in the UCL, but honestly, a more realistic objective would be to score a goal and lose this match honorably, which they did so far. With this team, Otelul could start 5 more UCL campaigns and they would still be looking for their first point.

The Romanians have not suffered severe defeats, a maximum of 2 goals margin loss to Manchester (twice), but they were shy when it was about scoring goals, only managed to do so against Basel, three times.

This is logically the worst appearance of a Romanian side in the UCL, no team has ever finished a group without collecting a point, but records are meant to be broken, aren’t they? Luckily for them it’s not possible to collect less than 0 points.

Defenders Sarghi and Salageanu have been ruled out, but I guess that doesn’t make much of a difference.

Probable Otelul line-up :

Grahovac
Rîpă, Sg. Costin, Perendija, Ilie
Giurgiu, I. Filip
Antal, Neagu, S. Frunză
Pena

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The Betting Verdict

This is Dorinel Munteanu’s (Otelul’s coach) second appearance in the UCL group stages, he took over Steaua for a short period of time three years ago and sit on the bench in three UCL games, which means that this will be his 9th game in the most important club competition.

In 8 games his teams collected 0 (zero, none, nil, love) points, conceded 16 goals and scored 3. Apart from putting an end to that shameful run, there is a financial incentive as well, a victory in the UCL is remunerated with 700 000 euro, which is a lot for Otelul Galati, their annual budget is no more than 10m.

However, I don’t think Otelul will do anything surprising tonight and that is reflected in the odds as well, so you might take a look at the handicap market for some value. My selection is Benfica to win to nil, which worked well in the games against Manchester. Otelul also lost their home game against Benfica to nil.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Benfica 2-0 Otelul Galati

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Benfica to win to nil at 1.57 Bet365
Confidence: 8/10