Stuttgart v Benfica: UEFA Europa League
Tonight, Bundesliga strugglers Stuttgart, host Benfica in the 2nd leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 32 and the German side would be looking to use the away goal advantage as a platform to overturn the 2-1 deficit.
Although, the Portuguese side has a really good advantage, there is one stat that has been their bane in all European competitions for many years.
Benfica have not been able to win on German soil in the last 18 games and they will definitely face a huge task as they look to hold on to their slender advantage away from home.
Meanwhile, Stuttgart would be looking to repeat their performance against the side from Lisbon when they met last week.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Franco-Jara-c14063 scored through a deflection to give Lisbon
a good advantage.
Team news
Stuttgart
Marc Zeigler will make his second debut for Stuttgart tonight as coach, Bruno Labbadia, has dropped http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sven-Ulreich-c34389. The dropped shot-stopper has had a pretty rough season both domestically and in Europe and Labbadia was forced to drop him to give the 34-year
old Marc Zeigler a chance to prove himself.
German international, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pavel-Pogrebnyak-c29501 is also out injured, so Harnik will be playing as a lone striker tonight.
Benfica
Benfica coach, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Javier-Saviola-c18090. The Portuguese coach will have a fully fit squad at his disposal so he will be looking to maintain his side’s lead in the tie, in order
to progress to the next round.
Previous Meetings
Stuttgart played Benfica in the UEFA Cup group stage in the 2004/05 campaign. That time, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Giovanni-c14985 Trapattoni was the coach of Benfica and Stuttgart was under the guidance of Matthias Sammer. The Germans won the game 3-0.
Although Stuttgart are very close to relegation in the Bundesliga this season, they won their group and have been unbeaten in 7 home games. They won all three games at home in the Group stages of the UEFA Europa League and are in with a great chance of turning
the tie around. Furthermore, Benfica haven’t won on German soil but they will be happier if they don’t concede a goal as a 0-0 draw will take them through to the round of 16.
Last week, Benfica’s second goal in the game was their 550th in UEFA and if they do lose, it will be their 100th defeat in Europe.
Moreover, Benfica have lost all of their last 4 away games in Europe by a margin of 2 goals and they haven’t managed to score a single goal in European outings this season. Currently, Stuttgart playmaker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arthur-Boka-c6707, is the tournament’s top supplier with
5 assists.
Prediction
Although Stuttgart won’t be in Europe next season and may well not be in the Bundesliga but they have been good in the Europa League so far. The German side can turn the deficit around and will use the strong German history against Benfica to progress to
the last 16.
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