Fenerbahce make a return to the Champions League after a two years absence from Europe’s premier competition, and they would be looking to make it to the group stage. The Turks were eliminated by eventual semifinalists, AS Monaco is 2016, but they would consider Benfica not as tough as the Kylian Mbappe led Monaco.
Benfica would be hoping to make a return to the group stage that they failed to win a single match last season, failure to do so would mean that Portugal would have just a single representative in the competition.
Benfica lost all their group games last season and that is understandable as they had several departures whom they failed to adjust to. They eventually found some form in their domestic league and pushed FC Porto all the way in the title race, that should give them some confidence of a home win in this third round matchup.
Fenerbahce were unlucky to exit the Champions League qualifiers in 2016 following a 4-3 aggregate loss to Monaco, but they look a better team now after scoring 78 goals in their league last season. We expect them to follow up on that in this game and punish this Benfica defence that is still struggling.
