Liga Bwin: X-ray of the Benfica-Santa Clara clash

This Saturday, May 27, at 6 pm, Benfica hosts Santa Clara, on matchday 34 of the Liga Bwin. Clinching the three points at Estádio da Luz, the Glorioso wins the 38th national title in its history.

Leader of the competition since the opening round, now with 84 points amassed, the team coached by Roger Schmidt will face the bottom-placed team with 22 points, already relegated to Liga 2.

The record of matches between the two teams is largely in favor of Benfica. In 16 games played, the Reds have won 13 and drawn two.

With 79 goals scored, Benfica has the best attack of the Liga Bwin, while Santa Clara has 26 strikes. With 18 goals, Gonçalo Ramos is the eagles' top scorer. Gabriel Silva and Matheus Babi, both with five goals, are the Azoreans top scorers.

The reds are one of the team with most shots in the Liga Bwin (524) and vastly outnumber the next opponent (327). Benfica got 38.9% of those shots on target, while Santa Clara got no more than 33%, according to data from the Wyscout platform.

Neres and Grimaldo, both with nine assists, lead this ranking, with the full-back also in first in terms of crosses (200). Benfica is the team that uses this weapon the most in the competition, 755 with 37.1% success rate, while Santa Clara accounts for 413 with 28.8% success rate.

In the game build-up, the team led by Roger Schmidt is the one that makes more passes (19,355 with 87.3% success rate) and, once again, the numbers reflect the opposite positions of the two teams in the table, as the Azoreans are the ones who make the fewest passes (10,404 with 78.6% success rate) in the Liga Bwin.

Benfica also leaves all the competition behind in terms of through passes and into the final third. However, Santa Clara has more long passes made (1484 against 1266) than the leader of the Championship.

With the best defense of the League, with just 20 goals conceded, the Reds will face an opponent whose 55 goals are only surpassed by Marítimo (60) and Paços de Ferreira (59).

The team under Schmidt is also the one that allows the fewest shots to its opponents (217), while Santa Clara allowed 410. 

In the derby on matchday 33, Roger Schmidt launched Odysseas, Aursnes, António Silva, Otamendi, Grimaldo, João Neves, Chiquinho, João Mário, Neres, Rafa and  Gonçalo Ramos.

On the other hand, in the 1-0 win over Portimonense, Santa Clara presented themselves in a 4x2x3x1 with Gabriel Batista, Sagna, Ygor Nogueira, Ítalo Assis, MT, Bruno Jordão, Adriano Firmino, Gabriel Silva, Bruno Almeida, Andrezinho, and Matheus Babi.