Benfica out of the Europa League with only hecatombe. What about Torreense?

O Benfica took a potentially ‘giant’ step this Thursday towards the establishment of the next phase of the Europe League, by taking the best of Lech Poznan, in the Stadium of Light, by 3-1, thanks to the goals initialled by Rafa Silva, Gianluca Prestianni and Georgiy Sudakov (who deserved answer from Leo Bengtsson, already in the final moments).

Marco Silva's team went on to add 12 points earned in 12 possible, which keeps him in the lead of the league phase, in equality with Bournemouth (who beat Sparta Prague by 1-3) and Ferencváros (who won AC Milan by 0-2), and Opta's supercomputer's perspectives could not be better.

At this moment, this platform assigns to incarnates 99.29% of chances of ending among the first eight classified and, consequently, determining directly for the eighths of the final, so only a hecatombe in the last four games, against Viktoria Plzen, OFI, NEC and AZ Alkmaar will change this outcome.

In fact, eagles are even pointed out with the team with the greatest chance of reserving the first position of the table (44.74%), followed by Bournemouth (39.96%), Ferencváros (4.76 %), Union St. Gilloise (3.95%) and Juventus (3.15 %), and this phase is expected to end with between 20 to 21 points in the ‘algieira’.

To be confirmed, already in the ‘mata-mata’, the Portuguese training would measure with the 15th, the 16th, the 17th or the 18th grade (which will all go to playoff). To confirm the forecasts of the company specialising in the processing of sports data, these would be respectively Dynamo Zagreb, Levski Sofia, AZ Alkmaar or NEC.

Torreense wins ‘battle’, but may not arrive

The Torreense also had reason to smile, on this fourth day of the league phase of the Europa League, since it received and beat the Ararat-Armenia, for 3-2, in a meeting of 'mad people', which was only resolved during the compensation period, fruit of goals marked by Javi Vázquez and Musa Drammeh, who sentenced the twist.

The set commanded by João Nuno thus ascended to the 19th place of the general classification, with the same six points of AZ Alkmaar, Anderlecht, OFI, Rennes and Omonia. However, ‘avisa’ the so popular supercomputer, this record may not be enough to prevent elimination.

At the moment, the men of Torres Vedras appear at 28th place, with between eight and nine points, which means that they would not even go to the playoffs, since re-fishing covers only the teams ending between the ninth and 24th positions, so they are obliged to counter (again) expectations.

The Torreense is still relying only on itself to move forward, and will seek to remake its own in the last four rounds, in which they will measure forces with Celtic, Real Sociedad, Lech Poznan and Olympiacos.

Sporting Braga continues in the fight

At the Europe Conference League, the Sporting of Braga proved unable to go beyond a goalless draw, in the trip to Cepheus Park Randers, against Aarhus, so it reached four points in three days, and is 17th ranked, ‘collared’ the Red Star, Atalanta and Gent.

The platform of the Opta points it, for now, to the 12th place, with between ten and 11 points, which means that it would have to go to the playoff, where the team that would finish in the 21st or 22nd place, which, also based on this prediction, would be Nordsjaelland or Egnatia Rrogozhine. Before that, you will face KuPS, Brann and, precisely, Egnatia Rrogozhine.