Benfica will certainly be keen on bouncing back following their surprise loss to Rio Ave in their last match before the international hiatus. The Águias have been in great form, especially at the Estádio da Luz, where they have yet to lose a league game so far this season. However, the team's fans were left less than impressed with their performance against Rio Ave in which not only were they largely outplayed from start to finish, but also saw skipper Luisão sent off.
This means that they now will have to take on a Nacional side without their talismanic leader, who has been largely a rock in the centre of defense for Jorge Jesus's side. However, Argentinian winger Nico Gaitan, who has also been quite influential for the Portuguese powerhouse, made his return from an injury lay-off in the loss against Rio Ave and his coach is certainly happy to have him back in the fold.
In their past five meetings in all competitions, Benfica have defeated Nacional each and every single time, recording clean sheets on three of those occasions. The last time the visitors were able to defeat the hosts in the Primeira Liga was back on August 21, 2010, which ended as a 2-1 win.
And the Alvinegros have been quite impressive as of late, having won or drawn ten out of their last 13 matches across all competitions - namely holding fellow "Big Three" members Sporting and Porto to draws in the Taça de Portugal and league respectively.
How Benfica and Nacional stack up prior to their clash: The hosts will be wary of dropping points with Porto right on their tails
With Porto right behind them, Benfiquistas will be keen on their team getting back on track after the loss that snapped an excellent seven-match unbeaten streak. Given that they will play before their title rivals, a win would allow Benfica to move six points ahead, albeit for just 48 hours prior to Porto taking on Estoril on Monday.
This will be the 21st meetings between Benfica and Nacional at the Estádio da Luz. The visitors have never won here, and have only earned four draws as opposed to having suffered a daunting 16 losses. Nonetheless, Jorge Jesus was quick to warn his troops not to take their upcoming opponents too lightly.
"Nacional's offensive play is their strongest point with Lucas João, Matias, and with support from Tiago... they are a team with a lot of quality. We know there will tight moments in the game and we will need to be prepared," he stated in his pre-match press conference.
Despite the massive gap between the two sides, the hosts will definitely be feeling the pressure as they hope to avoid the nightmare of the 2012/2013 season that is still fresh in fans' minds, in which they were in contention for four trophies and finished with none.
Meanwhile, Nacional will be hoping to beat a string of bad results and clinch their first ever win at Benfica's home ground, something that, given the closeness in this season's title race, the reigning Primeira Liga will do everything and anything they can to avoid.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Follow the game on-the-go
Download our iOS and Android apps to follow soccer on-the-go. It comes packed with features - live scores, fixtures, results, tables, line-ups, stats, TV schedule and much more! Sorry, no live streaming within the app.
