WELCOME OFFER FOR THE EUROPA LEAGUE AVAILABLE HERE
PRICE BOOSTS MAX BET £10
EUROPA LEAGUE BOOSTED ODDS AVAILABLE HERE
Recent Form
These two are tied at the head of Group D and couldn’t be separated when playing out a thrilling 3-3 stalemate in Portugal. That’s the only time in Rangers’ last nine where they’ve failed to register a clean sheet, but we’d be surprised if either team were to draw a blank here.
Steven Gerrard’s men have followed up that result with crushing 8-0 and 4-0 victories over Hamilton and Aberdeen respectively, with as many as seven different goalscorers, so there shouldn’t be any question marks over their firepower.
Benfica may have only scored once in their last outing away at Paredes in the Taca de Portugal, though it was a second-string side that took to the field. Prior to that, they’d scored at least twice in nine of 10 matches, and a minimum of three in over half of these.
The Portuguese outfit could certainly do with a tonic however. Prior to that win over third-tier outfit Paredes, they were without maximum points in three appearances against Boavista, Rangers and Braga.
They lost both domestic encounters, while they conceded three times in each of those recent clashes as the defence certainly has questions to answer.
Former Man City defender Nicolas Otamendi was the main culprit in the reverse fixture when clumsily clipping Ryan Kent as the last man, leaving Benfica down to 10 men inside 20 minutes.
He’ll likely be replaced by the experienced Jardel at the back, but this is a side that have often struggled to register clean sheets in Europe.
Over 2.5 Goals
Goals are a common refrain in Benfica’s European matches and all but one of their last 13 have seen a minimum of three.
In the Europa League alone four of seven matches over this period featured a whopping six strikes, though worryingly for the Portuguese outfit, they conceded at least twice in six of those matches despite these coming in Europe’s second tier.
In further bad news for the visitors, they have a number of players absent for this clash either through injury or positive Covid-19 tests. The most damaging loss is that of Man City-linked striker Darwin Nunez, who has already delivered four goals and an assist in Group D.
Rangers To Win And Both Teams To Score
Benfica have been regulars in the Champions League group stages and have found the going tough, but in this competition alone they’re a much healthier W5-D3-L3 since 2018/19.
However, it’s worth noting that all three defeats came on their travels, so it’s hardly surprising that Rangers, aided by sky-high confidence, are favourites in this encounter.
The Gers have consistently delivered in Europe under Gerrard and are W7-D7-L5 from the group stages onwards since he rocked up in Glasgow. All but one of those defeats came on the road as they went W5-D3-L1 at Ibrox alone, including wins over the likes of Porto, Feyenoord and Braga, as well as a stalemate when Villarreal came to Scotland.
Further, they took down Galatasaray here this season in a one-legged play-off, so they’ve certainly built up some vital experience over the past couple of campaigns.
Rangers To Win 3-1
We’re unconvinced that Rangers’ stellar defence is going to be breached three times again and especially on home turf. Indeed, they’ve kept 17 clean sheets from 22 matches since August, only conceding twice or more on two occasions.
However, they should continue to deliver at the sharp end and given each of Benfica’s four European defeats since the start of last season have ended 2-1 or 3-1, one of those two scorelines appears a probable outcome. Given Benfica’s recent defensive struggles, the latter in particular appears a massive price.
Rangers To Win And Both Teams To Score At 5/2
0.5pts: Rangers To Win 3-1 Correct Score At 14/1
RANGERS V BENFICA ODDS AVAILABLE HERE
18+BeGambleAware
ODDS ARE CORRECT AS OF 24/11/2020 HOWEVER ARE SUBJECT TO FLUCTUATIONS
