Manchester United open their Champions League campaign with a trip to Benfica on Wednesday night. The Reds start as 10/11 favourites for the Group C clash at Estadio da Luz, while Benfica can be backed at odds of 3/1 and the draw is priced 12/5 by William Hill bookmakers.
The 10/11 on offer looks a decent price considering United have won six of the past seven meetings with the Portuguese side and have started the Premier League season like a runaway train. Sir Alex Ferguson's men have made light of injury problems to brush aside all before them and Wayne Rooney has been integral to their progress.
The England striker has scored eight goals in four matches so far and is an industry best priced 11/2 favourite to score first with Hills. Rooney is on an amazing run which has seen him score consecutive hat-tricks for his club and there are juicy odds of 40/1 on offer for Rooney to notch another hat-trick on Wednesday.
United have scored eighteen goals in four matches in the Premier League so far, while Benfica have conceded at least two goals in each of their past five matches in the Champions League. That is in stark contrast to the defensive record of United in Europe, who didn't concede an away goal in the competition last season - winning five and drawing one of six away matches.
The odds of 21/10 for United to win to nil on Wednesday look good and the United clean sheet can be backed at 5/4 with WilliamHill.com. Even with Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic out injured, Jonny Evans and Phil Jones have slotted in to the defence nicely and have ensured that United have only conceded three goals in four matches so far.
Sir Alex Ferguson is also without Tom Cleverley, Rafael and Danny Wellbeck this week but his side should still have enough to overcome this Benfica outfit.
Benfica may have finished second in the Portuguese League last year but the standard of football there leaves a lot to be desired. They finished 21 points behind champions Porto, despite having a very fine home record and they could struggle in Europe this term.
Enzo Perez is a doubt for them, although Ezequiel Garcy, Nolito and Maxi Pereira all return from injury. They had to overcome FC Twente to make the group stages and have started the new Portuguese season in fine style as they are unbeaten in four matches.
Oscar Cardozo is likely to be their main threat after scoring three goals in four appearances in the domestic league and he is 8/1 to be first scorer, but it is difficult to see them upsetting United.
We fancy United to ease to victory in this opening match and the correct score of 2-0 to the Reds could be the way to go at odds of 8/1 with William Hill.
Find out more about the match odds, team form and latest news for Benfica v Man Utd at our dedicated Champions League mini-site.
Benfica v Man Utd Form
Check the season's statistics for both Benfica and Man Utd plus the odds ahead of Wednesday's match.
Benfica v Man Utd Tips
Tip #1: Man Utd to win the match @ 10/11 with WilliamHill.com
Tip #2: Man Utd to win to nil @ 21/10 with WilliamHill.com
Tip #3: Wayne Rooney to score first @ 11/2 with WilliamHill.com
Match Betting
3/1 Benfica
12/5 Draw
10/11 Man Utd
Correct Score Odds
10/1 Benfica 1-0
20/1 Benfica 2-0
12/1 Benfica 2-1
9/1 Draw 0-0
6/1 Draw 1-1
16/1 Draw 2-2
6/1 Man Utd 1-0
8/1 Man Utd 2-0
15/2 Man Utd 2-1
First Goalscorer Odds
11/2 Wayne Rooney
6/1 No Goalscorer
13/2 Javier Hernandez
7/1 Oscar Cardozo
15/2 Dimitar Berbatov
8/1 Michael Owen
8/1 Javier Saviola
9/2 Nolito
9/1 Ashley Young
10/1 Pablo Aimar
10/1 Nani
Odds supplied by WilliamHill.com, plus over 100 other betting markets on this match and all the week's Champions League matches, including live betting in-running.
Posted: Tuesday, 13th September 2011
Author: Chris James
Tags: champions league, manchester united, benfica, wayne rooney, william hill,
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