Borussia Dortmund vs Benfica - Champions League Preview and Odds

Published on: 06/03/2017

Borussia Dortmund vs Benfica - Champions League Preview and Odds

March 08, 2017 19:45pm - Signal-Iduna-Park

Referee: Martin Atkinson (ENG)

Champions League - Knockout Stage

Borussia Dortmund meet Benfica at the Signal-Iduna-Park for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League Last-16 match with the Germans needing to recover from a 1-0 deficit.

Dortmund bid to overturn first-leg deficit against tricky Benfica

Borussia Dortmund were a missed penalty away from claiming a draw in the first leg of this match in Lisbon a fortnight ago. Kostas Mitroglou had put the home side ahead early on in the second half but the Germans were gifted an opportunity to equalise when they were awarded a penalty just 10 minutes later. Unfortunately for the visitors, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang`s spot kick was saved by Ederson and the home side hung on to their slender advantage.

Thomas Tuchel`s men topped Group F ahead of reigning champions Real Madrid, scoring 21 goals in the process. But despite their impressive stats, they remain 16/1 outsiders to go all the way in this tournament.

Meanwhile, Benfica are looking to progress to the quarter-finals for the second year running. Last season they took a 1-0 lead to Zenit at the same stage of the competition and prevailed by a 3-2 aggregate scoreline, before falling to Bayern Munich in the Round of 8.

The Portuguese side made it the last 16 with the lowest point`s tally of all the teams after finishing runners-up to Napoli in Group B with a total of eight points.

Team news

Marco Reus (muscular), Mario Gotze (Illness), Sebastian Rode (groin) and Sven Bender (ankle) are all expected to be missing for the home side.

Meanwhile, the visitors also have injury concerns surrounding Lisandro Lopez, Jonas (knock) and Alex Grimaldo.

Recent form (All competitions)

Borussia Dortmund: WWWLL

Benfica: WWWWW

Betting odds and tips

The home side have a perfect record at home to Portuguese clubs and will be looking to continue that trend on Wednesday. Overall, they are unbeaten in their last 17 matches on home soil but the lack of an away goal in the first leg will be a nagging concern. And for that reason, the price for Benfica to qualify looks like decent value.

You can back Benfica to qualify at 11/10 with Bet365.

By Neil Morris

Published on: 06/03/2017

Any odds displayed within this preview were correct at the time of publishing (06/03/2017 14:24:05) but are subject to change.