Benfica arrive at this Primeira Liga opener carrying a head to head record that borders on the brutal. Nine wins from the last 10 meetings tells its own story, and the scorelines reinforce it: the visitors have put 5 past Maritimo twice in that sequence, hit 7 in another, and conceded just twice across all 10 encounters. Only once have the hosts broken that pattern, and even the single Maritimo goal registered in the 7-1 defeat back in December 2021 did nothing to alter the outcome. Both teams scored in just 2 of those 10 fixtures, underlining how thoroughly Benfica have controlled this fixture at both ends.

Maritimo's pre-season yielded 2 wins and 2 defeats across 4 friendlies, with 5 scored and 6 conceded. Clean sheets arrived in half of those matches, including a 2-0 win over Camacha in their most recent outing on 22 July and another 2-0 victory against AVS a week earlier. The heaviest reverse came against Leixoes, a 1-5 home defeat that skews the goals conceded total, while a narrow 0-1 loss to Academica opened the summer programme. Scoring in 3 of 4 matches suggests reasonable attacking output, but the opposition level and the friendly nature of the sample leave significant questions about how that translates into competitive intensity. The Formatic weighted form score of 5.33 out of 10 reflects steady rather than sharp preparation, and the lack of competitive action since May means this opener arrives without a recent gauge of league readiness.

Benfica's warm-up delivered 3 wins and 2 losses from 5 friendlies, with 12 goals scored and 6 conceded. They scored in every one of those matches, hammering CF Os Belenenses 5-1 at home on 24 July and recording 2-0 and 3-1 victories over Villarreal and Estoril respectively. The only clean sheet in that run came against Villarreal, while defeats to FC St. Gallen in the UEFA Europa League and Flamengo both arrived by the same 1-2 scoreline. The goals profile hints at an attack that has found rhythm early, and the 3-1 away win over Estoril in the Primeira Liga back in May provides the most relevant competitive benchmark. A weighted form score of 6 out of 10 gives Benfica a 0.67 advantage over their hosts, and while that gap is modest, it sits on top of a head to head dominance that has seen the visitors win 9 of the last 10 and average 3.4 goals per meeting.

The historical pattern points overwhelmingly one way, with 6 of the last 10 encounters producing over 2.5 goals and Benfica winning by margins of 3, 5, 1, 7 and 1 in the five itemised meetings. Maritimo's solitary success in this sequence is buried in the totals, and their inability to score in 4 of those 5 detailed fixtures underlines the size of the task. Benfica have conceded just twice across 10 head to heads, and even allowing for the pre-season context, the form edge and the attacking output they have shown suggest they will approach this opener with confidence. The numbers frame a fixture where the visitors have consistently found goals and kept the hosts quiet, and nothing in the summer preparation contradicts that trajectory.