Tuesday Football Tips: Mario's the man for Benfica

Benfica v Maccabi Haifa
Tuesday 9 September, 20:00 kick-off
Live on BT Sport

In what looks like a battle for third place in their Champions League group, Benfica host Maccabi Haifa in their first ever competitive meeting.

Benfica made it through to the knockouts last year at Barcelona's expense, but without Darwin Nunez they're not expected to repeat that feat and beat either PSG or Juventus to second.

With PSG and Juve playing each other first though, Benfica have the chance to get off to a perfect start and maintain their 100 percent record this season.

The Eagles have won five out of five for the third straight year in the Portuguese league and also scored 12 goals in winning all four of their Champions League qualifiers.

Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa are back in the group stages after 14 years thanks to a thrilling last-minute goal at Red Star Belgrade in qualifying.

They've not won a game in the competition proper for 20 years though, and they're not expected to break that run with the hosts massive favourites to start the group stage with a win in their easiest fixture.

Benfica have won five of their last seven group stage fixtures at home, so they'll be popular in accumulators even at restrictive odds as this game really shouldn't be a problem for them.

The half-time stats recently offer us a way in for this game, as Haifa conceded every single one of their seven goals against in qualifying in the first half, so are susceptible to an early goal.

That plays into our hands here as Benfica can be fast starters with nine of their 12 strikes in qualifying coming in the opening 45 minutes.

It makes backing Benfica/Benfica in the half-time/full-time market worthwhile at an improved price from the straight win odds.

For our player props, Benfica midfielder Joao Mario is the man in form having scored four goals already this season, which is already more than he managed last year.

He's scored three penalties as well so with the hosts bound to pile forward early and often there should be plenty of chances for him to extend his scoring run.

Joao Mario is a 7/5 shot in the anytime scorer market and that makes for a nice Bet Builder for this Champions League game.