Preview

February 27, Lisbon, Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, 22:00
Live broadcast on Futbol 1 channel
  
Before the match

A week ago, the Orange-and-Blacks inflicted a first defeat on Benfica in the Europa League Round of 32. However, the 2-1 score considering the Portuguese’ away goal is somewhat dangerous, with absolutely everyone realizing that this outcome will only matter if they advance to the next round.
  
Luis Castro flew home with his new team for the first time ever. He spent his player and coaching career in Portugal, with Benfica always being the top-level motivational factor for him, in particular during his spell at Porto, because both clubs are the most decorated in the country.

On Thursday, the Miners’ coach will have to pick Serhii Bolbat or Dodo for the right-back role, with the latter being back after suspension. We want to mention that the following four players encountered both Benfica and Desna: Mykola Matviienko, Taras Stepanenko, Alan Patrick, and Junior Moraes. Marlos and Taison spent 30 minutes in the league game, with Ismaily playing for 20 minutes.
  
Opponents

At Benfica, Julian Weigl is back after being suspended – he was signed up by the club during the winter break from Dortmund to strengthen the second third. In connection with his return, Florentino is not expected to appear. Otherwise, everything depends solely on the tactical ideas of Bruno Lage for the return leg. For example, Samaris played in a pairing with Weigl vs Gil Vicente, with Taarabt being assigned a more attacking role, with Rafa Silva moving more to the left, while Cervi remained on the bench.
  
This season, Benfica suffered three home defeats (at the hands of Porto, Leipzig, and Braga), spending the limit of possible misfires. The Eagles’ objective is to change their series of failures for the usual winning pace - in the match against Shakhtar this is a matter of participation in the competition. As for the domestic league, Bruno Lage’s men had already taken the first step there by defeating Gil Vicente away through the only goal by Vinicius in the 15th minute.

Head-to-head record
 
After meeting in Kharkiv, the teams have had 3 encounters now. The balance is in Shakhtar’s favour: 2 wins, 1 defeat, 4 goals scored and 3 goals conceded.