Benfica will look to maintain their perfect start to the 2026-27 Europa League league phase campaign when they welcome Lech Poznan to the Estadio da Luz on Thursday evening.

Marco Silva's side sit top of the 36-team table with nine points from three matches, while the Polish champions are down in 32nd place with just one point, leaving Niels Frederiksen's men with a difficult task against one of the competition's early pace-setters.

Match preview

Benfica have made an impressive start to the league-phase campaign, winning their opening three Europa League matches against AC Milan (2-0), Celtic (4-1) and Omonia (4-1) in their most recent continental outing.

Those results have left the Lisbon outfit at the top of the Europa League standings as one of just five teams to have won all three of their opening fixtures, while their 10 goals also make them the competition's highest-scoring side.

Silva's men have been in excellent form across all competitions, winning 14 of their last 15 matches, with their only defeat coming against Porto in the league Classico on September 20, before responding with six consecutive victories.

Although last weekend's 1-0 home success over Alverca - secured by Vangelis Pavlidis' 51st-minute penalty - was the only match in that winning run in which Benfica failed to score more than once, it also marked their first clean sheet in five outings and kept them second in the Primeira Liga table, five points off the summit.

Benfica will now turn their attention back to Europe, where another victory would strengthen their position in the race for automatic qualification to the knockout stages, and they can draw confidence from a home record of nine wins in 10 matches (D1) this season.

That includes victories in all four of their Europa League fixtures at Da Luz across the qualifying rounds and league phase, scoring at least three goals in each and finding the net 18 times while conceding just three.

Lech, meanwhile, arrive in Lisbon with a far less convincing European record after suffering 4-0 defeats to Crystal Palace and Bayer Leverkusen, though they did claim their first point of the league phase in a 1-1 home draw against Sunderland in their most recent continental outing, with Leo Bengtsson scoring a 70th-minute equaliser.

Having conceded nine goals in the league phase, the Kolejorz have the joint-second-worst defensive record in the competition, with only bottom-placed Ararat-Armenia shipping more, while no side in the competition has found the net fewer times than the Polish champions’s one strike in the competition this term.

Frederiksen's team have endured an inconsistent run across all competitions in recent weeks, winning four of their seven matches since returning from the October international break, a period that also saw them eliminated from the Polish Cup to lower-division Siarka Tarnobrzeg.

Lech’s domestic form has been far more encouraging, though, with last weekend's 3-1 victory over Wisla Krakow marking their fifth consecutive league win, leaving the Kolejorz three points clear at the top of the Ekstraklasa table after collecting 31 points from a possible 36 this season.

However, the Poznan-based club face a much tougher test on Thursday, having lost both of their previous meetings with Benfica in the 2020-21 Europa League group stage, suffering a 4-2 defeat at home before falling 4-0 at the Estadio da Luz.
 

Benfica Europa League form:

Benfica form (all competitions):

Lech Poznan Europa League form:

Lech Poznan form (all competitions):

Team News

Benfica are expected to be without Leandro Barreiro, who faces around two months on the sidelines with a thigh injury, while Enzo Barrenechea remains doubtful as he continues to recover from a knee problem.

Dodi Lukebakio was forced off during the second half of last weekend's victory over Alverca, although reports suggest the issue is not serious, while Rafa Silva remains in contention to return to the starting lineup on the right side of the attack.

Pavlidis has scored in each of his last four appearances for Benfica and also found the net in both of his starts in this season's Europa League league phase, making the Greek striker one to watch.

Lech will definitely be without Ali Gholizadeh, who is recovering from an ACL injury, Joao Moutinho, who has a broken foot, and Alex Douglas, who is sidelined with an ankle problem.

Meanwhile, Wojciech Monka and Mikael Ishak are still nursing muscle problems, while Allahyar Sayyadmanesh is working his way back from a hamstring problem.