Benfica vs Qarabag prediction 16.09.2025 | Champions League

Last season, Benfica again failed to win the championship title in Portugal, but they found their way to the Champions League through qualifications. Benfica already won their first trophy of the season, the national super cup, which they won after beating Sporting CP (1-0). That victory was followed by eight more games in which Benfica didn't lose. However, the last few matches weren't that impressive. One of the games is surely their previous outing when Bruno Lage's team played 1-1 at home against Santa Clara. The guests played with ten players more than one half, but Benfica still allowed Santa Clara to take home one point.

Benfica failed to beat Santa Clara, but the head coach, Bruno Lage, already after that game, talked about the importance of the clash at the start of the Champions League. He said, "Now it's time to bounce back, we have a game on Tuesday to win at home. I appeal to our fans: keep supporting us. Thank you for your support today, and be here on Tuesday because we need to have a good Champions League and start with a win."

Benfica have some missing players ahead of the game against Qarabag. They will be without Alexander Bah, Bruma, and Manu, while Dodi Lukebakio and Amar Dedic are questionable.

Although Qarabag became regular in the European competitions, this year they qualified for the Champions League main phase for the second time in their history. Although most pundits consider Qarabag as one of the weakest teams in the competition this season, they hope to finish among the best 24 teams and progress to the next phase. However, Qurban Qurbanov's team haven't impressed lately as they have won only one of the last four matches. In the previous game, Qarabag played 1-1 at home against Zira. Qurbanov's team will have to do much better to get anything on Tuesday night in Lisbon. 

Qarabag have some problems with injuries, too. Aleksey Isayev, Jonathan Montiel, Amin Ramazanov, and Amin Rzayev are unavailable for Tuesday's game.