Chelsea kick off their UEFA Champions League campaign with a home match on Tuesday, they host LaLiga side Valencia at Stamford Bridge in London. The two sides have met at the same stage of this competition in 2011, back then Chelsea secured a 1-1 draw in Spain and a 3-0 victory in England with a double from striker Didier Drogba. Overall, Chelsea have won three of the six direct matches so far, while the other three were draws.
Chelsea return to the UEFA Champions League after a one-year absence, last season the Blues played in the UEFA Europa League and they made the most of it by winning the trophy. They started this season with a 4-0 Premier League defeat at Manchester United, then lost the UEFA Super Cup against Liverpool, but now they are unbeaten in the last four matches and have grabbed an impressive 5-2 victory at Wolverhampton last weekend. Antonio Rudiger and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are out injured, while Emerson, Reece James, N'Golo Kante and Callum Hudson-Odoi are also expected to miss out.
Valencia have not managed to qualify from the UEFA Champions League group stage since the 2012-2013 season, and they will have to fight hard for it this time as well since they are in the same group with Chelsea, Ajax and Lille. They have won just one of their four competitive matches this season, 2-0 at home against Mallorca, while last weekend they got hammered 5-2 by giants Barcelona. Cristiano Piccini and Carlos Soler are both injured and won't be able to play in this match.
Probable line-ups:
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga - Azpilicueta, Tomori, Zouma, Alonso - Barkley, Jorginho, Kovacic - Pulisic, Abraham, Mount
Valencia: Cillessen - Wass, Garay, Paulista, Gaya - Torres, Parejo, Kondogbia, Guedes - M. Gomez, Moreno
My prediction:
Chelsea didn't have the safest of defences so far this season, but they have been scoring freely in the last few matches, so I think they will be able to grab a 3-1 win.
Here are the odds for the match at NetBet:
Chelsea win - 1.83
Draw - 3.75
Valencia win - 4.25
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Comments (1)
sharpe
09/17/19, 01:09:20 PM
I really like what Lampard have been trying to do in Chelsea and despite many people have been questioned him as a manager and his lack of experience before the...
I really like what Lampard have been trying to do in Chelsea and despite many people have been questioned him as a manager and his lack of experience before the season I think he's been really brave playing the youth and demanding an attacking style from his players. Saying all that I could choose only one team to win this especially having in mind Valencia are in a tough period themselves, 4-1 Chelsea.
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