Catalan giants Barcelona host defending Premier League champions Chelsea on Wednesday at Camp Nou for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League first knockout round tie. Barcelona have a slight advantage after the first leg as they managed to record a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, Lionel Messi made it all square after Willian had opened the scoring for Chelsea. The Blues have never won against Barcelona at Camp Nou, but they have not lost on the last four trips to Barcelona.
Barcelona are quietly trying to pull off a treble this season, they are in control of things in LaLiga, qualified for the final in the Spanish Cup, and expecting to get through to the quarter-finals in the Champions League. Since the first leg they managed to beat rivals Atletico Madrid in LaLiga and last weekend won 2-0 at last-placed Malaga despite allowing Lionel Messi to miss out in order to enjoy the birth of his child. Andres Iniesta is an injury doubt ahead of Wednesday's match but Messi will surely play.
Chelsea had a torrid time after the first leg, they had to face the Manchester teams in back-to-back matches and they lost both, 2-1 at United and 1-0 at City. Last weekend they bounced back with a 2-1 home victory over Crystal Palace, but they remain fifth in the Premier League table and are very likely to miss out on Champions League qualification through their Premier League placement. Ross Barkley, Tiemoue Bakayoko and David Luiz are still unlikely to recover in time for Wednesday's match.
Probable line-ups:
Barcelona: Ter Stegen - Roberto, Pique, Umtiti, Alba - Paulinho, Busquets, Rakitic, Iniesta - Suarez, Messi
Chelsea: Courtois - Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger - Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso - Willian, Pedro - Hazard
My prediction: Barcelona to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Barcelona win - 1.44
Draw - 4.75
Chelsea win - 8.00
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Comments (1)
sharpe
03/16/18, 05:03:22 PM
I think Chelsea were equal to the Barcelona in both games but lack of confidence and the fact they not in the pick of their form in this very moment didn't allow...
I think Chelsea were equal to the Barcelona in both games but lack of confidence and the fact they not in the pick of their form in this very moment didn't allow them to create the miracle. They were quite unlucky too with striking the bar for times didn't help at all, certainly that 3-0 was unfair to them.
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