Benfica are rated as slight favourites to go through despite the 3-2 defeat in St Petersburg, but Zenit will fancy their chances at La Luz Stadium.

The Portuguese giants have been thoroughly impressive this season, in all the competitions entered, but the Eagles have been struggling for form ever since their 11-match winning run was ended by the defeat to Zenit.

Benfica have since lost the league games against Vitoria Guimaraes and Porto, while sharing spoils with Academica, so they clearly go into this game low on confidence.

The 3-2 defeat to Porto left them three points adrift of their arch rivals, meaning that what looked to be a very successful season could turn into utter disappointment.

With Ezequiel Garay definitely out through a knee injury and Pablo Aimar and Yannick Djalo both injury doubts, odds of 1.67 (2/3) offered by William Hill on home win do not look too tempting.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-3-2): Artur – Pereira, Luisao, Vitor, Emerson – Garcia – Witsel, Aimar, Gaitan – Cardozo, Rodrigo.

Zenit beat Porto to the place in Champions League knockout stages and they now have a chance to beat the other Portuguese giants and reach the quarter-finals.

The Russian side did well to win the first leg in St Petersburg, having come from a goal behind to record a 3-2 win, but they will have to produce another convincing performance in order to win this tie.

Zenit’s domestic campaign finally resumed last weekend, meaning that Luciano Spalletti’s side should be in better shape than three weeks ago, and odds of 2.25 (5/4) offered by 188BET on Zenit to qualify could be worth a shot.

The Russian giants kept their six-point advantage at the top of league standings as they held title rivals CSKA Moscow to 2-2 draw and they will be looking to build on the good performance in that match when they face Benfica at La Luz.

New signing Andrei Arshavin is ineligible, having played for Arsenal in the competition, but Vyacheslav Malafeev and Alexander Bukharov return to the side. Portuguese midfielder Danny remains sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Malafeev – Anyukov, Hubocan, Lombaerts, Criscito – Faizulin, Semak, Denisov – Shirokov, Kerzhakov, Lazovic.