They will be plenty at things at stake on Wednesday night for Manchester United, as The Red Devils look to continue their unbeaten run whilst manager José Mourinho looks to impress against his first managerial side Benfica

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Needing a very quick turnaround 

Both sides will clash at the Estádio da Luz on Wednesday with each in a rich vein of form, but the hosts will be eager to quickly turnaround their form in Europe's elite competition. 

The domestic campaign has started off well for Rui Vitória's side as they currently sit third in Portugal's top-flight, with their defeat to Boavista having been the only one in the opening eight matches. 

However their form in the Champions League has certainly been indifferent, with a defeat against The Red Devils almost wiping out their chances of getting out of the group. 

It started with a slightly unlucky 2-1 narrow defeat to CSKA Moscow however were taught a lesson with the trip to Switzerland, with goals from Michael Lang, Dimitri Oberlin, Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Blás Riveros seeing them drubbed 5-0 by Basel. 

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Looking to impress the former employers 

These two sides have an illustrious history against one another, but this will more special to the self-proclaimed 'special one' with Mourinho taking his first steps in management with Benfica back at the beginning of the Noughties. 

Mourinho has had an illustrious career since then and looks to be on the road to success once again with united, with the side yet to be undefeated thus far in all competitions. 

The Red Devils head into this clash under a slight cloud after their negative performance in their first real test of the season with the 0-0 draw with Liverpool, but will take some solace in their European form. 

It started simple with a 3-0 win over the Swiss champions but still faced a tough test away in Russia, but it was another stellar show as goals from Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave them the 4-1 win at CSKA

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Team news 

The big omission from the clash will be the absence of full-back André Almeida, the Portuguese international is suspended for the clash having been dismissed in the heavy defeat to Basel last time out. They also have some injured absentees with Jonas struggling with a back injury, while there is no place for experienced Eliseu. 

There was a massive boost for United fans as both Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw both been named in the travelling squad, both have been without injury for a considerable amount of time especially the Argentine but he is still quite some way from first-team action while Shaw got a run out at the weekend for the Under-23's. 

However there are still some major absentees from the squad with Mourinho confirming Eric Bailly was still out after picking up a injury on international duty, both Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimović will continue to be absent for this clash. 

Benfica will host Manchester United at the Estádio da Luz on Wednesday, October 18 with kick-off at 7:45pm. 

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.