Preview: Benfica vs. St Gallen - prediction, team news, lineups

A week on from losing to St Gallen in Marco Silva's bow as Benfica boss, the Eagles look to overturn a 2-1 disadvantage in their Europa League second qualifying round tie at Estadio do SL Benfica.

Even though a one-goal defeat is far from unassailable, Silva will hope to leverage the Portuguese giants' impressive record at Estadio da Luz to advance to the next round, where Hearts await.

Match preview

There was always going to be some pressure after replacing Jose Mourinho in the dugout at Benfica, and Silva is likely finding that out already.

Still in his early weeks in charge of As Aguias, the Portuguese faces the prospect of dropping down to the Conference League if they do not overturn last week's 2-1 loss at Sitterstadion.

A Rafa Silva leveller before half-time seemed to be enough for the Eagles, who kept the score level until Tom Gaal scored for the Swiss side with 10 minutes of normal time to play, leaving the Reds staring down a narrow defeat.

Unable to peg the Swiss side back, Benfica must now at least secure a win by a similar score to force extra time if they cannot seal a heavy victory to avoid elimination from Europe's second-tier club competition on Thursday.

Last season's goalscoring culmination to the campaign bodes well for O Glorioso, albeit under a different manager, as the Portuguese heavyweights ended the season scoring at least two goals in their final six top-flight matches at Estadio da Luz, while they notched that many in 10 of their 12 matches in Lisbon in Mourinho's final five months in charge.

Aiming to be only the third team in 2026 after Braga in January and Real Madrid in February to stop the Eagles from scoring as many at the Stadium of Light, Enrico Maassen takes his St Gallen side to Lisbon with something to hold on to.

Both sides entered last week's fixture with zero competitive matches under their belts, but it was Espen who had the final say in front of their supporters.

Last season's Swiss Super League runners-up have since followed up their narrow win in the first leg with another slender success to start their league campaign, beating Zurich 2-1 at the weekend to maintain their 100% record in competitive games in 2026-27.

Having ended pre-season with three consecutive defeats to Lustenau, Lyon and Norwich, conceding 11 goals in those games and scoring just four, the last two results have restored some much-needed belief.

Now, Espen seek to survive the wrath of Benfiquistas on Thursday, to set up a third qualifying round tie with Hearts for a place in the playoff round.

Benfica Europa League form:

St Gallen Europa League form:

St Gallen form (all competitions):

Team News

While Benfica did not suffer any apparent injuries last week and likely have only Bruma's to deal with heading into this week's fixture, Gianluca Prestianni will serve the last of his three-match suspension for homophobic conduct towards Vinicius Junior in February.

Although Rafa Silva scored the equaliser last week, assisted by Vangelis Pavlidis, the latter remains the Eagles' leading source of goals, and they will hope that last season's 22-goal forward delivers the goods against St Gallen.

Having missed last week's first leg, new signing Jhon Duran, who scored in the weekend's 5-1 friendly win over Belenenses, is part of the squad for Thursday, adding to the list of match-winners for Silva.

While World Cup stars Andreas Schjelderup, Fredrik Aursnes and Dodi Lukebakio were missing last week, the trio are part of the squad for the tie, even if it remains to be seen if they feature against Espen.

Unlike their hosts, the Swiss side have several injuries to deal with, with Stephan Ambrosius, Behar Neziri, Colin Kleine-Bekel, Malamine Efekele, Cyrill May, Nino Weibel and Nevio Scherrer all absent due to mid- to long-term issues.

With Espen losing last season's leading marksman Alessandro Vogt to Hoffenheim, the away side will lean on Carlo Boukhalfa and Aliou Balde for final-third end product, with Balde already proving his worth by opening the scoring in the first leg a week ago.

Benfica possible starting lineup:

Trubin; Bah, A. Silva, Lenglet, Dahl; Figueiredo, M. Silva; R. Silva, Sudakov, Kaminski; Pavlidis

St Gallen possible starting lineup:

Ati-Zigi; Gaal, Stanic, Okoroji; Vandermersch, Gortler, Daschner, Boukhalfa, Stevanovic; Witzig, Balde

We say: Benfica 3-1 St Gallen (Benfica win 4-3 on aggregate)

Despite the threat of elimination from the second tier of continental football, Benfica should have enough to overturn last week's narrow loss in Switzerland to advance to the next round.

The hosts admittedly have significantly more match-winners to call upon, which ought to give them the edge over St Gallen.

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