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The most successful side in Portuguese Primeira Liga history, Benfica, will be looking to improve on their mediocre at best campaign thus far.
They may have won five of the last seven titles but that doesn’t seem to be helping them this campaign as they currently sit in fourth place on 38 points after 19 games.
Arsenal, on the other hand, have had a topsy-turvy season yet again. After their worst finish in the league for 25 seasons when finishing eighth last term, they look to be having troubles again down in 10th.
However, they only trail fourth placed Chelsea by eight points, as the final few European place in the Premier League look up for grabs for a number of teams.
Their form over the most recent 10 league matches shows their upturn in results, going W6-D2-L2, and based on that metric alone, they’ve been the third best team over the that period behind both Man City and West Ham.
This game will have an extra bit of spice to it with ex-Spurs centre back Jan Vertonghen at the back for the Portuguese outfit, while alongside him will be Nicolas Otamendi, a player Arsenal’s manager Mikel Arteta will know a fair bit about from his Man City days.
To top it off, the mutual fan will be intrigued to see ex-Queens Park Rangers player Adel Taarabt take to the field as well.
Benfica went just W3-D3 in Group D, drawing both ties with Rangers and the other when visiting Standard Liege.
That was enough for them to qualify, but finishing two points behind the Scottish outfit has set up this tough last 32 clash.
They do have a very respectable home record in the knockouts in Europe though, winning seven of their 11 unbeaten outings at Estadio da Luz since 2013/14, and that should put them in good stead.
Benfica And Arsenal To Draw
The Gunners will still be kicking themselves after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang blazed the ball wide of the upright against Olympiacos in the dying minutes of stoppage time at this exact stage 12 months ago, ending their European campaign that year.
However, they were a bit hit and miss in the group stages last season, while this time around they have an immaculate 100% winning record.
They’ve gone W5-D1-L3 from their nine knockout fixtures on the road since the start of 2017/18, making it a hard one to call.
When English teams have visited Portugal in Europe, they have finished all-square in half their eight unbeaten outings over the last four seasons, including all four since the start of last term, and that certainly brings the stalemate into play.
Moreover, Benfica have drawn four of their nine outings since mid-January, remaining unbeaten at home, but they did fail to beat the ‘Big Three’ teams above them domestically - Sporting CP, Sporting Braga and Porto - in any of their three such matches over that period.
Benfica And Arsenal To Draw At 5/2
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