Benfica vs Qarabag

Benfica have now gone six games at home without a win in the UEFA Champions League/European Cup for the first time ever (D2 L4).

Qarabag secured their first ever UEFA Champions League victory in their seventh game in the competition (D2 L4) while it was only their second victory in their last 12 games in major European competition (D1 L9).

Benfica have lost their last two UEFA Champions League home games where they found themselves 2+ goals ahead, after winning 57 and drawing one of the 58 previous such occasions (including European Cup).

Benfica’s hosting of Qarabag will be the first game between a Portuguese and Azerbaijani side in European Cup/UEFA Champions League history.

Qarabag are making their 12th appearance in the group stage/league phase of a major European competition (UEFA Champions League/UEFA Europa League/UEFA Conference League), nine more than all other Azerbaijani sides combined.

Benfica have won their opening game in two of the previous three UEFA Champions League campaigns (L1), after only doing so once in the previous seven between 2014-15 and 2021-22 (W1 D2 L4).

In their prior UEFA Champions League campaign in 2017-18, Qarabag failed to win any of their six matches (D2 L4), scoring just two goals in a group with Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea and Roma.

Qarabag’s only previous tournament opener in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League was a 6-0 defeat to Chelsea in 2017-18, with five different Blues players scoring against them in that match (plus a Maksim Medvedev own goal).