UEFA Champions League – Match Preview: Benfica versus Hapoel Tel Aviv
Benfica will go all out against Tel Aviv in their first 2010/2011 UEFA Champions’ League group stage match today. Benfica hail from Portugal while Hapoel belong to the famous Israeli city of Tel Aviv; both these teams are in one of the toughest groups of this year’s UEFA Champions League. Group B also includes former French champions Lyon along with former German champions Schalke 04. It is bound to be a rough ride for all these teams which are pretty evenly balanced units.
Benfica along with Lyon have a particular advantage in this group as they have regularly made appearances in the UEFA Champions League. On the other hand, their group rivals are not that experienced at the top level of European club cup football. Tel Aviv are certainly one of those teams who are new to the UEFA Champions League. Their qualification came through as a result of their first placed finish in the Israeli football league.
Tel Aviv’s qualification road to the group stages of the UEFA Champions League included several tricky ties. In the round two of qualification, the Israeli club defeated FK Željezničar Sarajevo by an aggregate score line of six goals to nil. Tel Aviv scored five goals without reply in the home leg and one goal to nil in the away tie in Bosnia.
In the third round of qualification, Hapoel met FC Aktobe. Aktobe were defeated in the home leg by a score line of 3-1 but Hapoel lost their away leg by only a single goal. Nonetheless, their victory over Aktobe pushed them into the next qualification round against FC Red Bull Salzburg. Salzburg were no match for the Israeli champions as Hapoel ended up as eventual winners on aggregate by four goals to three.
Just one defeat in the six qualification matches en route to their group stage berth has signalled a strong intent of success from Hapoel’s side. The Israeli club will be looking to continue its consistent performances and there won’t be a better way to announce their arrival amongst the big boys other than gaining an away victory over Benfica.
However, Benfica are no ‘Minnie mouse club’ themselves. The Portuguese champions have two European Cups to their name, before UEFA changed the format of the competition which is now known as the UEFA Champions League. Benfica were a powerful force that was feared throughout Europe. They have also ended up as runners up on no less than five occasions throughout their history in the European Cup. Benfica’s two wins in the European Cup came in 1960-1961 season and then in the 1961-1962 season. They ended up as second best in the final of the tournament in the 1962–63, 1964–65, 1967–68, 1987–88 and 1989–90 seasons.
The Portuguese champions have had a very bad start to their Portuguese campaign as they have only won one of their previous five competitive matches. It has been a difficult task for Benfica to recover from the loss of their young starlet Angel Di Maria, who was sold in the summer transfer window to Real Madrid.
Regardless, they lost their last league match to Vitoria Guimaraes in the Portuguese league. On the other hand, Hapoel Tel Aviv have lost only once in their last five matches. Two of their five matches have resulted in a draw while two have ended up in wins for the famed Israeli football club side. Tel Aviv will be banking on their attacking midfielder Eran Zehavi, who is reputed for getting crucial goals for his side from his offensive midfield positions.
Benfica will be expecting a strong performance from the likes of Javier Saviola and Pablo Aimar, who have bags of European Cup experience. Despite the fact that Tel Aviv are a respectable outfit, Benfica’s quality in numbers makes them the favourites to win this match.
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