Maccabi Haifa and Benfica face off on Wednesday in a UEFA Champions League Group H showdown at Sammy Ofer Stadium.
When these two teams faced off on September 6th it was Benfica that secured the 2-0 victory. Rafa Silva scored in the 49th minute and Alex Grimaldo scored in the 54th minute. Benfica had 57 percent of the possession and five shots on target. Maccabi Haifa had 43 percent of the possession and two shots on target.
Benfica currently sits in second place in the group, having picked up 11 points. Their last Champions League game came against Juventus, and they were able to secure a 4-3 victory. Rafa Silva scored in the 35th and 50th minutes to pace the team on the way to victory. On October 29th against Chaves, Benfica scored five points, and that led to the 5-0 defeat. Goncalo Ramos, Fredrik Aursnes, Joao Mario, and Rafa Silva are all expected to get the start in this game.
On the other side of this matchup is Maccabi Haifa who sit in 4th place in the group having picked up three points. Maccabi Haifa’s last Champions League game came against PSG, and they were defeated 7-2. The defense was awful, and that is going to need to be much better in this game. On Saturday they faced off against Ashdod and Maccabi Haifa was able to secure a 3-1 victory. Daniel Sundgren just suffered a long-term injury, and it’s not expected that he will be back for a while.
Benfica is a strong offensive team, and their offense is going to do too much here. Look for Benfica to score three or four goals, and Maccabi Haifa is going to have no answer for it. I don’t think Maccabi is going to even score and that will be the difference as Benfica is going to get the job done.