Liga Bwin: X-ray of the Benfica-Braga clash

With four games to go in the Liga Bwin 2022/23, Benfica, the competition leader, faces SC Braga, 3rd place, this Saturday, May 6, at 8:30 pm, at Estádio da Luz, in a clash from matchday 31 of the competition.

Eagles embrace the match at the Cathedral after two wins, in the home against Estoril (1-0) and, in Barcelos, against Gil Vicente (0-2), while the opponent beat Casa Pia (0-1) away from home and Portimonense (4-1) at home.

Benfica is currently the leader of the competition with a four point lead (77 points) over the 2nd place, FC Porto (73).  Braga is in third place with 71 points.

This will the 156th match between the two teams in all competitions, and the balance dictates 99 wins (64%) for Benfica, 31 (20%) draws and 25 (16%) losses.

The men under Roger Schmidt hold the best attacks (71 goals scored against 66 from the bracarenses, who sit 2nd in this ranking) and the best defense (17 against 25), presenting themselves as the second team with the most ball possession (62.2% against 54.3%), and with the two top scorers in the competition: João Mário and Gonçalo Ramos, both with 17 goals. Braga has in Ricardo Horta (12 goals), Simon Banza and Iuri Medeiros (10 goals) its top scorers in the League. Benfica also has the athlete with the most assists in the competition: Grimaldo, with eight assists.

Still in the attack, looking at data collected on the Wyscout platform, Braga has more shots (494 against 473), but Benfica takes better advantage of it, needing 6.7 attempts to score a goal (against 7.5 of SC Braga). The eagles fly higher in the crosses (687 against 538; 37% against 34.9% accuracy rate), in one-on-one dribbling (898 vs. 690; 53.5% vs. 54.8% success rate), touches in the box (796 vs. 690) and corner kicks (250 vs. 178).

Defensively, Benfica remains as the team that concedes the fewest shots (196 in total and six per game against 302 of SC BRaga in total and 9.16 per game) and presents itself as the team with the highest success rate in defensive duels (63.3% in 2139 duels against 60.3% in 2079 by the rival). The eagles are also the second team in the League with the highest success rate in aerial duels, 51% per match, while Braga stands at 46.9%.

In the build-up, Benfica has more passes (17,923 against 14,385, 87.5% correct against 84.4%) and more through passes (292 and 34.6% of success against 230 and 40.4% of success), being the second team in the competition that made fewer long passes (1159 and 58.8% of success), unlike Braga, the team that made more use of this resource (1579 and 57.4% of success).

In the last round, MD 30, Braga used a 4x4x2 to beat Portimonense (4-1) in Minho, playing with the following starting XI: Matheus, Víctor Gómez, Niakaté, Paulo Oliveira, Borja, Iuri Medeiros, Al Musrati, André Horta, Bruma, Ricardo Horta and Abel Ruiz.