No margin for error at Celtic

Celtic FC and SL Benfica renew acquaintance in Glasgow with both sides in need of a victory to maintain a realistic chance of progress in this season's UEFA Champions League.

• These two rivals occupy the bottom two places in Group D at the midway point of the group stage, having recorded one win and two defeats apiece. With AC Milan and FC Shakhtar Donetsk already three points better off, another reverse for either team would leave them stranded at the bottom.

• Benfica revived their prospects by registering their first points in the group with a 1-0 home success against Celtic on 24 October, Óscar Cardozo claiming the only goal in the 87th minute.

• A Benfica win in Glasgow would appear less straightforward, however. Celtic have recorded ten victories in 14 UEFA Champions League matches at Celtic Park and won all three home games in last season's group stage, when they qualified for the last 16 at Benfica's expense.

• The teams met at exactly the same stage of last season's group stage when Celtic won the first match of the double-header 3-0 before succumbing by the same score in Lisbon.

• Celtic owed their victory over Benfica on 17 October last year to goals from two players who have since left the Glasgow club. Kenny Miller scored twice (56, 66) before Stephen Pearson completed the victory in the last minute.

• Gordon Strachan's team overcame holders Milan 2-1 in their previous Group D home fixture. Scott McDonald struck the winner in the last minute after Kaká's spot-kick had cancelled out Stephen McManus's opening effort for the Scottish champions. Celtic had previously lost 2-0 at Shakhtar Donetsk on Matchday 1.

• For their part, Benfica started their campaign with successive defeats by Milan and Shakhtar. They lost 2-1 at San Siro on Matchday 1, where Nuno Gomes's goal was a mere injury-time consolation, and then went down 1-0 to Shakhtar at the Estádio da Luz.

• While this is the clubs' fourth encounter in 13 months, you have to go back to the 1969/70 season for their other previous meetings, when it took the toss of a coin to decide the outcome of their European Champion Clubs' Cup second-round tie.

• Goals from Tommy Gemmell, Willie Wallace and Harry Hood gave Celtic a 3-0 first-leg win in Glasgow but Benfica fought back in Lisbon securing an identical result thanks to strikes from Eusébio, Jaime Graça and Diamantino. The coin toss sent Celtic through, however, and they went on to the final where they lost 2-1 to Feyenoord.

• Celtic have an impressive home record against Portuguese opponents with seven wins and one draw from eight matches.

• Benfica were winners on their first visit to Scotland, beating Heart of Midlothian FC 2-1 in the 1960/61 European Cup. However, they have lost on their two subsequent visits to face Celtic.

• In their playing days, Celtic manager Strachan got the better of his Benfica counterpart José Antonio Camacho when Aberdeen FC defeated Real Madrid CF 2-1 in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in 1983.

• Camacho did enjoy success against Celtic as a player, however, featuring in the Madrid side who overturned a 2-0 defeat in Scotland with a 3-0 triumph at the Santiago Bernabéu in the quarter-finals of the 1979/80 European Cup.