Club Brugge vs Benfica

Club Brugge’s maiden foray into the Champions League knockout stages sets them up against seasonal campaigners Benfica at the Jan Breydel Stadium.

Club Brugge’s best chance of navigating this demanding round-of-16 tie is to win the first leg at home, though a dreadful five-game European run against Portuguese opponents (W1, L4) tells a different story. The reigning Belgian champions have been up the creek without a paddle since the club football resumption last December, picking up just one victory in nine outings across domestic competitions (D6, L2). Not even Scott Parker’s appointment on New Year’s Eve has turned Brugge’s fortunes around, with the former Bournemouth boss turning the ‘Blauw-Zwart’ into ‘stalemate specialists.’ Indeed, they’ve drawn five out of seven competitive fixtures under Parker (W1, L1). But Brugge’s impressive run of five clean sheets from six Champions League group matches looks promising.

As for Benfica, an outrageous form under Roger Schmidt saw the Primeira Liga heavyweights defy the odds to finish top of Group H ahead of PSG, Juventus, and Maccabi Haifa. Seeking their first Champions League quarter-final appearance since 2015/16, the ‘Eagles’ come into proceedings as favorites despite bowing out of last weekend’s Taca de Portugal quarter-finals to bitter rivals Braga via penalties. That defeat halted Benfica’s near-perfect seven-game start to the new calendar year (W6, D1), but that’s unlikely to trouble them much ahead of this trip. They have only lost one of their 14 previous encounters against Belgian opponents in major European competitions (W9, D4), which bodes well ahead of their first-ever meeting with Brugge.