Champions League forecast: Nice 0-2 Benfica, Salzburg 1-1 Bruges, Ludo 2-2 Ferencva

From the evening of August 6 to the early morning of August 7, the third round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers for the 2025-2026 season will continue.

Before the game, the football data website SportsMole also made predictions for some of the events that were started.

Nice 0-2 Benfica

Although this is only Benfica's second official game this season, a very terrifying record for this Portuguese Super League team is that since last season's Champions League quarter-finals lost 1-3 away to Barcelona, on March 12, in the 18 games since then, they have not lost 12 wins and 6 draws in the regular 90 minutes (the defeats in the Portuguese Cup and the Club World Cup were both lost to their opponents in overtime). Therefore, it is not difficult to see from the statistics of this data that the resilience and strength of this team;

As the fourth in Ligue 1 last season, Nice will be at home in the first leg, considering that this is only the team's first official game in the new season, perhaps their condition has not yet reached its best. After all, Benfica's last season did not end until the end of June, and they have made a debut in the Portuguese Super Cup in the new season.

It is expected that Benfica, who plays away, will be expected to win all!

Salzburg 1-1 Bruges

In many matches in the third round of the Champions League qualifiers, the reunion of Salzburg and Bruges is actually a match with little difference between the two sides and a big suspense.

The two sides had a match in the UEFA Europa League in the 18/19 season, and both sides won one game with their home advantage (Salzburg 4-0, Bruges 2-1). In the official match of the new season, Salzburg won 2 wins and 2 draws, while Bruges performed 2 wins and 1 loss.

Perhaps, as two teams with opposite strength, the draw will likely be the final result.

Ludogore 2-2 Ferencwa

The two sides had a high-density four-game encounter with the Europa League in 2019 - at that time, Ferencwa had a slight advantage with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Judging from the performance this season, Ferencva is actually not very good, especially on the defensive end. Although he remained unbeaten in 4 games, he conceded as many as 6 goals in the first three games of the season, which showed the instability of the defensive end;

If you only look at the defense, Ludogore remained unbeaten in 7 games this season, while only 4 goals were conceded, and he also lost to his opponent in 4 of them. But when it comes to offensive capabilities, there is a slight difference between them and Ferencva.

So, although Ludogore has the home advantage, their offensive ability may make the game a draw.

Rijeka 2-1 Sherburn

As both sides who were relegated from the Champions League qualifiers in the last round, they undoubtedly need to increase the probability of the team participating in the European competition in the new season through the victory of this round.

Rijeka has achieved 1 win and 1 draw in the home game in two games this season, and has not conceded goals at home yet. Although Sherburn's performance in the domestic league is acceptable, he has failed to win in the away matches of the two UEFA Champions League qualifiers since mid-July, and conceded goals in both games at the same time.

So, from the comparison between home and away games, perhaps the one who is more likely to win this game will be the home team Rijeka.