Hulk Zenit St. Petersburg
Hulk will be one of the key players for Zenit in their Champions League first leg against BenficaReuters

Zenit St. Petersburg will hope insider knowledge gives them an advantage when they travel to Lisbon to face Benfica in the last 16 first leg of the UEFA Champions League.

Zenit have three former Benfica players in Axel Witsel, Javi Garcia and Ezequiel Garay in their lineup, and the Russian club's Portuguese manager Andre Villas-Boas will hope to gain some information, which might help his team get over the line in the first leg.

"We have worked very well over past two months and our aim is to grab a good result in order to qualify in our home, where we have had some great performances in this competition," Villas-Boas, whose team have not played a competitive match in over two months, told UEFA's official website.

Benfica saw an 11-match unbeaten run come to an end at the weekend, when Portuguese title rivals FC Porto beat them in a high-profile match. Villas-Boas, though, feels that result might work against Zenit St. Petersburg.

"In recent months Benfica have transformed themselves completely," Villas-Boas added. "They are playing well, winning, scoring lots of goals ... I expect Benfica to be a bit angry about the Porto result and eager to get back to winning ways.

"This Benfica plays down the flanks, they cross a lot and create many goal chances from wing play. They play with a high defence, taking risks with the offside trap and they look very sharp."

Benfica will go into this match confident of getting a positive result at home. With Zenit St. Petersburg holding a really good record back in Russia, the Portuguese side will know the importance of taking a substantial lead into the second leg.

"We'll be up against a team of real quality, with quality players and a quality Portuguese coach," Benfica manager Rui Vitoria said. "They have players that have been together for many years and some of them know Portuguese football very well.

"They will be hard, strong opponents and now we'll find out how competitive Zenit are. No matter who the opponents are, Benfica aim to win."

Team news: Lisandro Lopes, Luisao, Pedro Rebocho, Nuno Santos and Ljubomir Fejsa are all ruled out for Benfica, while Zenit will have to make do without Vyacheslav Malafeev, Viktor Fayzulin, Aleksandr Ryazantsev and Igor Smolnikov.

Where to Watch Live

Benfica vs Zenit is set to begin at 8.45 pm local time (1.15 am IST, 2.45 pm ET, 7.45 pm GMT). Ten Sports will broadcast the UEFA Champions League match live in India, while the game at Estadio da Luz can also be watched via live streaming online on Ten Sports Live.

Viewers in the UK can watch the match live on BT Sport 2, with Watch BT Sport and the BT Sport App being the online live stream options. Sport TV1 and RTP1 will broadcast the Champions League game live in Portugal, while viewers in Russia can watch the match live on NTV.

Watch Benfica vs Zenit St. Petersburg live in the US live on Fox Sports 2, while the live stream option is on FoxSoccer2Go. TSN and TSN TV will broadcast the game live in Canada.

The Champions League game will be shown live in North Africa, Middle East, Australia, Spain, France, Indonesia and Thailand on Bein Sports, while the online live streaming option is on Bein Sports Connect.