Benfica will be looking to take advantage of the first leg at home before traveling to France for the second leg next Thursday. Benfica last appeared in the Europa League during the 2020-21 season, where the club was eliminated at this same stage of the competition by Arsenal.
The season is over 60% complete and big summer signing Orkun Kokcu, who just last season was named the Eredivisie's most valuable player, is still trying to find his footing in the Primeira Liga.
The Turkish midfielder has struggled more times than not this season, with some flashes of brilliance and fans are hoping that a player for whom the club paid a near record fee of €25M to arrive from Feyenoord does not turn into the club's all time bust signing.
The 23 year old has appeared in 27 contests across all competitions, scoring twice while providing seven helpers in 1,824 minutes of action, but Kokcu has failed to dominate games on most nights and leaves fans shaking their heads with his wayward performances.
Kokcu will need to learn to become a more sturdy midfielder if he is to succeed at the club and luckily for him and us, he still has four plus seasons to show us if he is the player the club thought they were getting or if he is to become the club's all time bust signing. Only time will answer that question.
Cabral has scored in three consecutive games across all competitions, just one shy of his season total before this run and it looks like he is finally rounding into the player the club expected when they paid €20M for his arrival from Fiorentina in the summer.
Benfica manager Roger Schmidt feels that Cabral has started to succeed because of an adjustment to his playing style, which is starting to mesh with his Benfica teammates. The striker is now playing a more flexible style and is seeing results because of it.
Cabral's under study Marcos Leonardo has found the net three times in limited playing time and Cabral no doubt knows that his minutes will vanish quickly if his early season form creeps back in.
