Champions League
2025-10-21 - Newcastle United vs Benfica
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: UEFA Champions League
Tuesday 21st October 2025 - Kick Off 8pm
This game is live on TV
Newcastle United
It has been a season of late goals being scored against Newcastle United and another at the Amex Stadium has pushed this inconsistent start to the campaign forward. Eddie Howe has to be largely happy with the performance level, although will also be frustrated that so many of the fine margins are seemingly working against his team.
They will be looking to bounce back from the latest Premier League defeat when returning to Champions League action on Tuesday and Newcastle United are hoping to build on the 0-4 win at Union Saint-Gilloise on Match Day 2. The side opened with a home defeat to Barcelona, but Newcastle United have to be targeting a spot in the Knock Out Rounds over the coming weeks.
Newcastle United have won 4 of the first 11 games played in all competitions this season, but the defeat on Saturday means they have lost half of the last 4. Even the form at St James' Park has been disappointing with 3 losses to go with 3 wins from the opening 6 fixtures completed here.
Fears about Yoane Wissa potentially missing several more weeks look to have been erased with the manager speaking about a potential debut before the November international break. He will miss out on Tuesday along with Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall.
Benfica
Just after the new ownership took charge of Newcastle United, reports suggested they had targeted Jose Mourinho to take over as manager with Steve Bruce set to be let go. Instead the role was given to Eddie Howe, but Mourinho has long had a deep affection for Newcastle United thanks to a strong relationship with Sir Bobby Robson.
Jose Mourinho will be guiding Benfica at St James' Park in the Champions League and he cannot have too much time to reminisce and instead has to focus on helping his team pick up important points. The Portuguese club were a part of the Club World Cup this past summer, but Benfica have lost both opening Champions League games in this Group Stage and are perhaps already chasing a top 24 finish.
Benfica led Qarabag 2-0 on Match Day 1, but were beaten 2-3 and they have won just half of the 6 matches played in all competitions under Jose Mourinho. They did win 0-2 at Chaves in the last away game played, but Benfica had lost 1-0 at Chelsea and drawn 0-0 at Porto prior to that.
The manager chose to ring the changes to the starting eleven in the win over Chaves with this Champions League fixture in mind.
Head to Head
The only previous meeting between these two clubs came back in the 2012/13 season when they played one another in the Europa League.
Benfica won 4-2 on aggregate, but the fixture in the North East of England finished 1-1.
Prediction
There would have been plenty of emotions to deal with when Jose Mourinho took his Benfica team to Stamford Bridge on Match Day 2 and he spoken openly about the feeling he has towards Newcastle United.
However, Benfica have made a poor start to the Champions League and Mourinho needs to help the team pick up considerably.
Another game at the home of a Premier League opponent is not going to be easy, even if Newcastle United are struggling for any kind of consistency right now. The loss at Brighton would have stung, but Eddie Howe's team have won half of the matches played at St James' Park and Newcastle United's defeats have been to Liverpool, Barcelona and Arsenal.
Injuries to the fullback areas don't help, but this Newcastle United team should have enough in the final third to edge past Benfica.
Jose Mourinho will likely set his team up similar to the visits to Chelsea and Porto when he was clearly looking to make things as difficult as possible for the home teams. It worked in Porto, but Chelsea had enough quality to edge to the three points in the Champions League and Newcastle United may be able to do the same.
Goals may be hard to come by if Benfica are able to dig in early, but Newcastle United have pace in the wide areas and a striker in positive form, which could see them earn the three points after coming through a battle.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Newcastle United 1-0 Benfica
