LAST season's Champions League runners-up Inter Milan welcome Benfica to the San Siro in the second round of group stage games.
Inter and Benfica battled out a cracker of a Champions League quarter-finals last season with the Italians prevailing only to eventually unluckily lose to Manchester City in the final.
This season, Simone Inzaghi's men have started in impressive style having won six of their seven games so far in Serie A and they look like they could take some stopping there.
Inter got back to winning ways at the weekend with a crushing win at Salernitana after a surprise home defeat to Sassuolo the previous week.
They started their group stages campaign with a decent enough point in Spain against an improving Real Sociedad side.
Benfica grabbed a morale-boosting win on Friday night against rivals Porto, but they have work to do in the Champions League after a shock 2-0 home defeat to RB Salzburg, although to be fair, they had to play 77 minutes with ten men after defender Antonio Silva was sent off.
They sit second in the league with six wins out of seven, with a loss at Boavista their only blip.
How the bookies view it
Inter are odds-on favourites across the board and are 4/5 with bet365, Paddy Power, William Hills and others.
Benfica can be backed at 18/5 with UniBet and the draw is 14/5 with William Hill.
Recent head to heads
As stated the sides met last season in the quarter finals. Inter won 2-0 in Portugal in the first leg and fought out an entertaining 3-3 draw in Milan.
They also played each other in the 1965 final which Inter won.
Players to watch
Argentinian hitman Lautaro Martinez has been on fire this season and warmed up for the clash with a remarkable four-goal haul at the weekend to make it ten goals for the season so far. He is 6/4 to score anytime with 888Sport.
Angel Di Maria is enjoying his return to his first club and even at the age of 35-year-old the former Manchester United, PSG and Juventus and Real Madrid winger netted the winner against Porto on Friday – his fifth of the season. He is 9/2 to score anytime in Milan.
Anything else catch the eye?
Inter look to be just too strong for Benfica and look a solid shout to win here at 4/5. They have been very consistent this season and have kicked on from last season's experiences.
However, this is unlikely to be the freescoring game of last season at the San Siro with defences tightened up since then and Benfica don't have to chase goals like last term.
In fact, it could even be settled by perhaps just the one goal so go for Both teams to score: No at 11/10 with bet365. Both teams have secured five clean sheets each this season.
This UEFA Champions League match between Inter Milan and Benfica will be played on Oct 3, 2023 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Inter Milan vs Benfica prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
