Portuguese powerhouse Benfica, who won an exciting 4-3 aggregate victory over Red Star Belgrade in 1984, will take on the Serbian squad on Thursday night as they kick off their 2024–25 Champions League campaign. This will be the first time the two teams have faced each other in 40 years.
Red Star Belgrade, who were eliminated from the Champions League during the previous season's group stage, are back in the thick of things on the continent after defeating Bodo/Glimt of Norway in the playoff round.
Red Star ended August on a high note, winning 2-0 in front of their own supporters after losing the first leg 2-1 away from home. Bruno Duarte and Uros Spajic scored goals just after the break to give Red Star a 3-2 aggregate triumph.
Since then, Napredak and Radnicki Kragujevac have been defeated 2-0 at home by Vladan Milojevic's team in back-to-back Serbian SuperLiga victories without a response.
Red Star has won the last seven Serbian SuperLiga championships. They are currently leading the league by three points after winning six and drawing one of their first seven games, scoring 21 goals and giving up just four goals.
Red Star has struggled to find success in the Champions League, having lost 14 of their first 18 games in the league. Only Malmo (83%) has a worse record than the Serbians (78%). On home soil, though, Milojevic's team has never lost to Portuguese opponents (W2 D1).
Benfica, who made it to the quarterfinals in 2022–23, is playing in the Champions League for the fourth time in a row. This time around, they are looking to avoid another early departure after losing in the competition's group stage the previous year.
The Eagles were second in the Primeira Liga standings the previous season, ten points behind winners Sporting. After five games, they are already five points behind their rivals from Lisbon, having dropped points in their games against Famalicao (a 2-0 loss) and Moreirense (1-1 draw).
Following the draw with Moreirense, Benfica fired Roger Schmidt. He was replaced by Bruno Lage, who rejoined the team four years after his previous stint as manager and guided the Eagles to a convincing 4-1 victory over Santa Clara at home last weekend.
Lage was happy with his team's comeback after they gave up the first goal within the first 30 seconds and thinks that the outcome 'was the first step' to winning back the club's "fundamental" supporters ahead of what is "going to be a long season."
Benfica, which has only won their first game in one of their previous seven competition appearances and just one of their last eight Champions League games overall (D2 L5), will be eager to start their Champions League campaign on a good note for a change.
