Celtic face arguably their toughest Europa League fixture of the league phase on Thursday night as they go to two-time former European champions Benfica .

Celtic ’s season has been an underwhelming one by their lofty standards but they earned a morale-boosting win at Motherwell on Sunday in their first match back after the international break.

Hoops fans will hope that is a timely return to form ahead of their trip to Lisbon , scene of the club’s famous 1967 European Cup final win over Inter Milan, as they prepare to face one of the Europa League favourites.

Benfica , who are 10/1 to lift the trophy in Frankfurt next May , have enjoyed a flying start under former Fulham boss Marco Silva with 11 wins from 15 matches in all competitions, including a 2-0 victory at AC Milan last month.

And we think they will be celebrating again on Thursday, with our prediction being a home win with over 2.5 goals in total @ 8/13 .

Betting Odds

Benfica vs Celtic Betting Odds - Europa League 2026-27

*Odds are correct at the time of writing, but subject to change.

Benfica are the 2/9 favourites to beat Celtic , who are 17/2 for the win, with the draw @ 9/2.

How to Watch

How to watch Benfica vs Celtic

The Europa League league-stage match is scheduled to begin at 20:00 BST on Thursday and will be shown live on TNT Sports 3 .

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Form Guides

Benfica form guide

Benfica suffered a losing start under Silva , going down to a late St Gallen winner in their opening Europa League qualifier , but quickly found their feet. A 5-0 second-leg thrashing of St Gallen kicked off a run of 10 wins and two draws in 12 matches , including a 6-1 trouncing of Celtic’s domestic rivals Hearts .

Benfica’s unbeaten run was ended by old rivals Porto just before the international break, with Clement Lenglet ’s 35th-minute dismissal contributing to a 3-1 defeat, but they got back on track with a 2-0 win over Vitoria Guimaraes on Sunday.

Vangelis Pavlidis was not among the scorers again as his mini-barren streak extended to three matches but, having netted 14 times in Benfica’s opening 11 games - including six in Europe, Celtic will need to watch him closely.

The highly-rated Greece striker is 5/2 to open the scoring on Thursday , while young Argentina winger Gianluca Prestianni could be a good option @ 5/6 to add to his eight-goal haul for the Eagles so far this season.

Celtic form guide

Celtic may have started the season with eight wins in nine games but their one defeat was a big and costly one, dumped out of the Champions League qualifiers by LASK following a 5-1 second-leg mauling.

The Hoops then suffered a nightmare spell heading into the international break as they crashed to successive defeats to arch-rivals Rangers either side of a 3-1 home defeat to Ferencvaros in the Europa League .

The Scottish champions will hope their 2-0 victory at Motherwell has got them back on track heading into a tricky run of matches against Benfica, Hearts, Celta Vigo and Hibernian .

Camilo Duran and Benjamin Nygren were on the scoresheet at Fir Park, taking their season tallies to seven and six respectively, and they could be Celtic’s best hopes of getting something from the trip to Lisbon .

Colombia striker Duran , who spent three years playing in Portugal at the start of his career, is 10/3 to score while Sweden forward Nygren is 7/2 .

Betting Tips

Benfica vs Celtic Betting Tips - Europa League 2026-27

Benfica to win with over 2.5 goals in total @ 8/13

Vangelis Pavlidis to score first @ 5/2

Camilo Duran to score at any time @ 10/3

Simply click/tap on the above betting tips to add to your betslip.

*Prices are subject to fluctuation.

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