Chelsea have won all four of their competitive meetings with Benfica (9-3 aggregate scoreline), with the most recent of those coming earlier this year at the FIFA Club World Cup (4-1 in a last 16 match).

This will be the first meeting between Chelsea and Benfica in the group/league phase of a competition, with the previous four all having come in the knockout stages: UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2011-12, UEFA Europa League final in 2012-13 and the FIFA Club World Cup last 16 earlier this year (all won by Chelsea).

Benfica are winless in their last eight meetings with English teams (D3 L5), with their last such victory coming over a decade ago, against Tottenham in the UEFA Europa League (3-1 in the last 16 first leg). Meanwhile, they haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 18 games against English sides (since a 2-0 win v Everton in November 2009, also in the UEFA Europa League).

Benfica manager José Mourinho has only won four of his 14 matches against Chelsea across all competitions (D3 L7), while none of those victories have come in the seven most recent games (D3 L4), last beating them in February 2018 (Manchester United 2-1 Chelsea in the Premier League).

Chelsea are currently on their longest ever losing streak in the UEFA Champions League (three games). However, they haven’t lost a home game in the group/league phase of the competition since September 2019 (0-1 v Valencia), going unbeaten in each of the last 11 since then (W7 D4). 

José Mourinho won his first ever game as a visiting manager at Stamford Bridge, with his Internazionale side beating Chelsea 1-0 in March 2010 in the UEFA Champions League. Since then, Benfica boss Mourinho has failed to win in each of his six away games against the Blues across all competitions (D2 L4).

There have been four instances in 2025 of a team losing a UEFA Champions League match in which they had led by 2+ goals, with half of those being accounted for by Benfica (2/4): 4-5 v Barcelona in January and 2-3 v Qarabag in their opening game of the current edition.

Cole Palmer scored Chelsea’s only goal against Bayern Munich last time out in the UEFA Champions League, while making the most passes breaking the opposition’s defensive line (3) of any player on either team. Palmer could become just the third player to score in his first two Champions League games for the Blues, after Didier Drogba in 2004-05 and Michy Batshuayi in 2017-18.

Along with scoring Benfica’s opener against Qarabag on MD1, Enzo Barrenechea was one of only two players who made 10+ line-breaking passes (11) and won possession 10+ times (10) in the opening round of this season’s UEFA Champions League, along with Monaco’s Lamine Camara.

João Pedro didn’t attempt a shot against Bayern Munich on his UEFA Champions League debut – however, he did lead all players across both teams for duels won (10), completed dribbles (3) and fouls won (4) at the Allianz Arena.