Two disappointed teams clash on Wednesday at Stamford Bridge where defending Premier League champions Chelsea take on Serie A title contenders AS Roma in the Champions League group stage. The two teams have last met at the same stage of the competition back in 2008 and Chelsea won 1-0 at home while AS Roma secured a 3-1 victory in Italy. Former captain John Terry scored for Chelsea on both occasions. Chelsea have won just 6 of their 18 matches against teams from Italy, while Roma defeated English teams nine times out of 31 occasions.
Chelsea suffered a shock defeat on Saturday, they lost 2-1 at previously winless and goalless Crystal Palace and dropped to fifth place in the Premier League table, nine points behind runaway leaders Manchester City. That was the second consecutive defeat for the Blues, so anything less than victory on Wednesday would be regarded as an extension to that poor streak. They do have two wins out of two in the Champions League so far, another three points would put them in a great position in the qualification race. Victor Moses and N'Golo Kante are sidelined with hamstring injuries, but there's a chance that Alvaro Morata might make his return.
Roma lost their second match of the season last weekend, 1-0 at home against Serie A leaders Napoli, and also dropped to fifth place in the league table. They have started the Champions League group stage with a goalless draw at home against Atletico Madrid and then barely squeezed past Qarabag 2-1, so they might to do a lot better to leave Stamford Bridge undefeated. Emerson, Patrik Schick, Rick Karsdorp, Stephan El Shaarawy and Kostas Manolas are all injured but Kevin Strootman should be ready to play after having missed last weekend's game.
Probable line-ups:
Chelsea: Courtois - Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill - Zappacosta, Fabregas, Bakayoko, Alonso - Pedro, Hazard - Morata
Roma: Alisson - Peres, Fazio, Jesus, Kolarov - Nainggolan, De Rossi, Strootman - Florenzi, Dzeko, Perotti
My prediction: Chelsea to win 1-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Chelsea win - 1.65
Draw - 4.00
Roma win - 5.75
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Comments (1)
sharpe
10/25/17, 07:10:56 PM
That was a great game like the end result truly shows. I don't think it was that big of a surprise that Roma take a point in that, Chelsea are not in the form...
That was a great game like the end result truly shows. I don't think it was that big of a surprise that Roma take a point in that, Chelsea are not in the form from the last season(would be tough anyway as it was almost perfect for them) and Roma has some really quality players now in their squad so a bit more lucky and they could of even win that one I think.
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