Europa League Final Benfica v Chelsea – The Facts
Having first met in last season’s UEFA Champions League, Benfica and Chelsea will lock horns again in this year’s UEFA Europa League final being played at the Amsterdam Arena on Wednesday 15th May. Chelsea won both their previous meetings in the group stages in last year’s Champions League, a 1-0 win at the “original” Stadium of Light and 2-1 return victory at Stanford Bridge. In both games there were late goals which secured victory for the Blues.
Should Chelsea beat Benfica they will become only the fourth club to count all three of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup on their roll of honour. They will follow in the footsteps of Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich.
Both clubs have almost similar records in this year’s tournament phase of the competition after being knocked out of the Champions League. Chelsea have won 5 games, drawn 1 and lost 2 games, scoring 15 goals on the way to the final. Benfica have won 6 games, drawn 1 and lost 1, scoring 14 goals. The one stat I do like is the number of attempts on goal. Chelsea had 102 shots/headers attempts on goal while Benfica have only had 72 attempts on goal. This is a 19.44% v 14.28% goal scored success ratio in favour of Benfica. Does this mean Benfica are the more clinical team in front of goal?
Both clubs have strong European Final experience. Benfica have appeared in 8 European finals while Chelsea have appeared in 4. Whilst Chelsea’s European final experience has been recent, 2 Champions League Finals in 5 years, and not forgetting the current Champions League champions, Benfica’s last final was 23 years ago when they lost to AC Milan, and Benfica’s last taste of European glory came 41 years ago when beating Real Madrid in the old style European Cup. Again, as already stated, Chelsea’s European final experience is recent and they have a better success percentage ratio when reaching a final, winning 75% of their European finals compared to Benfica’s success ratio, which is only 25%
One thing you can be sure about, the Chelsea fans will turn the Amsterdam Arena into a home fixture. It is almost certain the vast majority of the “neutral supporters” will in fact be wearing blue. This could be a big factor in a tight match. Another question, which will only be answered shortly before kick-off: will John Terry miss his second successive European Cup final? It is common knowledge Rafa likes to rotate his squad and with Terry starting the game against Aston Villa at the weekend the best he can expect is a place on the bench. Questions will be asked about the mental attitude of Benfica after losing a top of the table clash with Porto last Saturday, and only taking 1 point from their last 2 league games; is there extra pressure on them to win a trophy this season?
I expect a low scoring game with the winning goal coming late in the second half, possibly from a midfield player.
Europa League Final bet recommendations:
Spread Bets
Total Goal Minutes Buy @ 136
Oscar Cardozo Buy @ 17
Victor Moses Goal Minutes Buy @ 10
Fixed Odds
Half-Time Draw 23/20
