Benfica-Tottenham Hotspur betting previews
A Europa League exit is staring at Tottenham Hotspur when they visit Portugal for the second leg of the pre-quarter game against Benfica. The team knows what to do: secure a win by a three-goal margin. But against a Benfica side that has not lost any matches at home in this season – in Portuguese Liga Sagres, UEFA Champions League or Europa League – achieving even a close win is going to be difficult, forget winning by a three-goal advantage.
Tottenham might consider themselves hard done by the scheduling fate. They faced Chelsea and Arsenal earlier this month and lost both the matches. After this game, Southampton and Liverpool await them. The team will be mightily relieved when the month of March is over. A good thing for them is that they dominated the game against Arsenal in spite of the loss. Poor finishing let them down.
Benfica, the leaders of the Portuguese league, is on a high. The team is on an unbeaten run of 25 matches. Conventional wisdom would suggest that they will stroll their way into the quarterfinals.
The Spurs fans will hope that Emmanuel Adebayor will have a freakish day that will bring him a windfall of goals. That remains the only chance for them. Andros Townsend and Christian Eriksen are decent players, but do not appear capable of producing a big win.
Benfica will rely on their dependable trio of strikers: Rodrigo, Lima and Óscar Cardozo. They will be amused if defender Luisão, who scored two goals at White Hart Lane, can repeat his heroics.
It is really tough for Tottenham. They could face another hammering.