Beidan Meng Group

The third lap of the Champions League will usher in a first leg, with Nice playing against visiting Benfica at home.

Nice is a powerful team from Ligue 1. Last season, the team won 17 wins, 9 draws and 8 losses in Ligue 1 last season, ranking fourth in the standings with 60 points, and won a place in the Champions League qualifiers. In fact, they are only 1 point away from Monaco, who directly qualified for the Champions League. From this perspective, they also have the ability to directly advance to the Champions League main match.

This season's summer window, the team sent away the main striker Labode who scored a lot of goals last season. At the same time, another major player on the front line, Gussad, is about to transfer to Villa, and the midfield core Kamala also ran away from Bloma Pocanna. The team's frontcourt main players can be said to have all gone. In terms of signings, the team has only introduced a few less well-known players. The team's paper strength has declined significantly.

However, the team performed quite well in several preseason games. They had a proud record of 4 wins and 1 loss in a total of 5 games, including Feyenoord 2-1 and Sheffield United 3-2. This performance is also a bit surprising.

Benfica is a giant team from the Portuguese Super League. In the league last season, the team won 25 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses. It was not until the team drew 1-1 with Braga in the last round that they handed over the championship to Portugal Sports, and finally got the second place and won a place in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. The team also hopes to advance to the Champions League smoothly.

During the summer window, the team's superstar Di Maria's contract expired and transferred to Rosario Central. This is a huge loss for Benfica, but the team basically retained the lineup from last season, and all the core players in the front, middle and back lines remain in the team. In terms of signings, the team spent 27 million euros to introduce Palmeiras star Rios, and then spent 22.8 million euros to introduce Ivanovic from San Giros. The arrival of the two effectively made up for Di Maria's lack of offensive strength in leaving the team.

In the Club World Cup, Benfica advanced unbeaten in the group. In the first round of the knockout round, they faced the championship champion Chelsea until overtime. In the Portuguese Super Cup, the team took revenge and Portugal Sports successfully won the championship. The team is currently very morale and the new players are also plug-and-play.

The two teams have had two duels in history, and Benfica won both games. From the perspective of paper strength, Benfica also has the upper hand. At present, Nice lost serious personnel, and Benfica has strengthened it on the original basis. This game is likely to directly determine the result of the two rounds.