Portuguese giants Benfica begin their 2024-25 Champions League campaign with a trip to Serbia where they will face Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night.
The two teams meet for the first time in 40 years when Benfica won a thrilling European Cup first-round tie 4-3 on aggregate back in 1984.
Match preview
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After being knocked out in the group stage of last season's Champion League, Red Star Belgrade are back in the big time on the continent after navigating their way past Norwegian outfit Bodo/Glimt in the playoff round.
Despite losing the first leg 2-1 away from home, Red Star secured a 2-0 second-leg victory in front of their own fans, courtesy of goals either side of half time from Bruno Duarte and Uros Spajic, to prevail 3-2 on aggregate and end the month of August on a high.
Since then, Vladan Milojevic's men began September with back-to-back Serbian SuperLiga wins without reply against Radnicki Kragujevac and Napredak, beating the latter 2-0 at home last weekend.
Red Star have won each of the last seven Serbian SuperLiga titles and have made a strong start to the new campaign, sitting three points clear at the top after winning six and drawing one of their opening seven games, scoring 21 goals and conceding just four in the process.
However, success has been hard to come by in the Champions League for Red Star, as they have lost 14 of their previous 18 matches in the competition, with only Malmo (83%) having a worse loss rate than the Serbians (78%). Milojevic's side have never lost against Portuguese opponents on home soil, though (W2 D1).
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Benfica are competing in the Champions League for the fourth successive campaign and they will be hoping to avoid another early exit after crashing out in the group stage of last season's competition, having previously reached the quarter-finals in 2022-23.
The Eagles finished second in the Primeira Liga table last season, 10 points behind champions Sporting, and they already find themselves five points adrift of their Lisbon-based rivals after five matches, after dropping points in games against Famalicao (2-0 defeat) and Moreirense (1-1 draw).
Roger Schmidt was sacked by Benfica following the draw with Moreirense and he has since been replaced by Bruno Lage, who has returned to the club four years after his first spell in charge and led the Eagles to a comfortable 4-1 home victory over Santa Clara last weekend.
After conceding the opening goal inside the first 30 seconds, Lage was pleased with the response from his side and believes that the result 'was the first step' to getting the club's "fundamental" supporters back on side ahead of what is "going to be a long season".
Benfica will be keen to make a positive start to their Champions League campaign for a change, as they have won their opening game in just one of their last seven appearances in the competition, while they have won just one of their last eight Champions League matches overall (D2 L5).
Team News
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Red Star goalkeeper Omri Glazer recovered from a long-term adductor injury to make his first appearance of the season last weekend, and the 28-year-old is expected to continue between the sticks.
Milojevic is expected to name his strongest side with Nasser Djiga potentially recalled at centre-back to partner Uros Spajic, while Rade Krunic, Timi Elsnik and Mirko Ivanic all link arms in midfield.
Bruno Duarte is the club's top scorer thus far with six goals in nine appearances and the Brazilian-born forward is set to lead the line once again, with Silas and Peter Olayinka providing support in attack from the flanks.
As for Benfica, they will be without Renato Sanches (thigh), Fredrik Aursnes (muscle) and Tiago Gouveia (shoulder) due to injury.
Left-back Jan-Niklas Beste managed to shake off a muscle problem to make the matchday squad last weekend and the summer signing from Heidenheim is in contention to feature in some capacity on Thursday.
Antonio Silva, Florentino Luis, Kerem Akturkoglu and Angel Di Maria were all on the scoresheet in the win over Santa Clara and they are all poised to retain their places in the first XI.
Red Star Belgrade possible starting lineup:
Glazer; Mimovic, Djiga, Spajic, Seol; Krunic, Elsnik; Silas, Ivanic, Olayinka; Duarte
Benfica possible starting lineup:
Trubin; Bah, Silva, Otamendi, Carreras; Florentino, Kokcu; Di Maria, Rollheiser, Akturkoglu; Pavlidis
We say: Red Star Belgrade 1-2 Benfica
Red Star will be regarded as the underdogs for Thursday's contest, but they cannot be underestimated by Benfica on home soil. Having said that, we still expect the Portuguese outfit to get the job done and pick up maximum points on matchday one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Oliver Thomas
