Celtic travel to Lisbon to face Benfica in the Europa League, seeking their first points of the league phase after a disastrous European campaign so far. The Scottish champions are backed by fans making a pilgrimage to the city of their legendary 1967 European Cup triumph, but the Estadio da Luz could prove unforgiving.
Martin O'Neill's side ended a three-game losing run with a 2-0 victory over Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday, following an international break marked by fan protests against principal shareholder Dermot Desmond and questions over the manager's future. However, European form has been poor: Celtic crashed out of the Champions League playoff to LASK and lost their opening Europa League league phase fixture to Ferencvaros at home.
Writers' verdicts on a tough night in Lisbon
Benfica have lost just one of their last 10 games, a defeat to league leaders Porto, and the Record Sport team largely expects the Portuguese side to prevail. Robbie Copeland predicts a 'long night', forecasting Benfica 3 Celtic 0. Scott Burns agrees with a 3-1 Benfica win, noting the challenge is even bigger than the home defeat to Ferencvaros and pointing to Benfica's earlier result against Hearts this season.
Ryan McDonald also predicts Benfica 3 Celtic 0, acknowledging Celtic can draw inspiration from shock wins at Feyenoord and Stuttgart last season, but insists Benfica are 'a different animal' on home turf. Andy Newport expects a Benfica 2 Celtic 0 victory, noting Marco Silva suggested he might rest some stars, but the squad recently stunned AC Milan 2-0 at the San Siro.
Mixed hopes for a draw
Keith Jackson sees positives, citing Celtic's most impressive performance of the season at the weekend and Silva's talk of fielding a B team. He believes a draw would be a 'major shot in the arm' and predicts Benfica 2 Celtic 2. Mark Pirie, however, fears another humiliation following LASK and Ferencvaros, and with Cameron Carter-Vickers an injury doubt, predicts Benfica 2 Celtic 0.
Daniel Caw argues that playing as underdogs has suited Celtic in recent seasons, recalling the 0-0 draw with Atalanta, the 2-2 draw in Bologna, the 2-1 win at Feyenoord and the 1-0 win over Stuttgart. With Silva hinting at leaving out star men, he fancies a hard-fought draw, predicting Benfica 2 Celtic 2.
