Benfica v Rangers: Is it on TV, who to watch, form guide, Europa League preview, last match

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard (Photo by Rico Brouwer / SNS Group)

Alfredo Morelos rose from the bench to head the winner in last week’s Europa League group stage match at Ibrox which sent Rangers joint-top of the group with Thursday’s opponents Benfica, equalling Ally McCoist’s 21-goal European club record in the process.

The top-seeded side in the section are Steven Gerrard’s next hosts and while much rests on the Estadio de Luz result, more than a furtive glance will be given to the scoreline in Poland where Standard Liege visit Lech.

Match details

Alfredo Morelos celebrates after scoring to make it 1-0 Rangers last week (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Who: Benfica v Rangers

What: UEFA Europa League – Group D

Where: Estadio de la Luz, Lisbon

When: 5.55pm, Thursday November

How to watch

BT Sports will again show the Scottish representatives in the group stages of the Europa League kicking off their coverage with Steven Gerrard’s side on BT Sport 3 at 5.30pm on Thursday.

Celtic’s match with Sparta Prague follows the end of proceedings in Portugal and viewers with an EE mobile phone could be able to tune in free with an offer from the company, by texting SPORT to 150.

Alternatively Rangers TV will be offering audio coverage via their subscription packages.

Who to Watch

Who not to watch more like? So far the eye-catching stats have seen Darwin Nunez and attacking midfielder Pizzi notch three goals each across the two earlier group games.

But there’s a host of recognisable faces in the Benfica ranks including former QPR and Fulham man Adel Taarabt and former English Premier League defensive duo Jan Vertonghen and Nicolas Otamendi.

Swiss striker Haris Seferovic is also another well known name with four goals in five appearances.

Opposition Form

The wheels came off for Benfica at the weekend in the aftermath of their 3-0 win over Standard Liege last Thursday.

They went down to their first defeat in eight games and first loss to a domestic side since August 1 in a 3-0 reverse at Boavista. Benfica were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers in their only other defeat to PAOK Salonika.

The weekend defeat saw them drop a point off city rivals and Primera Liga leaders Sporting.

Previous Meetings

Rangers have never faced Benfica in a competitive match, but have a good record against Portuguese sides in the not too distant past.

Last season Ianis Hagi inspired a wonderful night at Ibrox to see off Braga alongside Joe Aribo and earlier in the Europa League campaign Porto were despatched in the group stages.

Overall, Rangers have a 56% win ratio over Portuguese sides from 18 meetings in and across all European competitions.

Benfica may not have faced Rangers but they have tangled with Celtic on EIGHT occasions - winning four and drawing once with the Glasgow rivals.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.