Arsenal make the trip down to Portugal on Thursday to face European giants Benfica for the UEFA Europa League round of 32 first-leg fixture. This is likely to be a very tactical and technical battle between two coaches, of different experience levels, but two coaches who share a similar philosophy in terms of their teams’ styles of play.
This matchup is arguably the toughest to come out of the draw for the round of 32 alongside Manchester United’s game against Real Sociedad and is likely to be a fantastic display of free-flowing and dynamic football.
Both teams are underperforming in their respective leagues so far this season with the Gunners currently sitting in 11th place as of writing, whilst Jorge Jesus’ side are fourth, two points from dropping out of the top four places.
Arsenal are the favourites for this big European game in the Estadio da Luz, certainly on paper, due to the quality within the squad’s ranks that Mikel Arteta has to choose from, but Benfica also have some outstanding talent too that can cause serious problems to the visitors’ rather underwhelming backline.
This article will be a preview of the highly anticipated European matchup, in the form of a tactical analysis of both teams. It will be an analysis of the two sides’ styles of play and the tactics which could decide this tie in the end.
Lineups and formations
It is highly likely that Jesus will opt to deploy his team in a 4-4-2 base formation for the battle against Arsenal. Benfica have used this formation in 75 percent of their games in all competitions so far this season, whilst the 4-2-3-1 has been their second most used formation, being utilised in only 5 percent of their matches.
The Portuguese manager has a tendency to constantly rotate his starting elevens and so predicting Benfica’s lineup will certainly be difficult for Arteta when performing an opposition analysis on the team.
