English clubs struggled last week in the Champions League and Chelsea are tipped to continue the trend in Turkey.
While Manchester City and Arsenal were clearly faced with stiffer tasks when beaten by Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively on home soil, Chelsea’s trip to play Galatasaray is no pushover and I am against the Blues.
The Premier League club have tightened up defensively since the turn of the year but scoring goals still remains a problem and I am never that convinced by Jose Mourinho’s men going forward.
Chelsea’s lack of a focal point in attack has been well documented and they come up against their Champions League hero from two years ago on Wednesday in Istanbul.
Didier Drogba scored the winning penalty in the 2012 final as Chelsea beat Bayern in front of the German fans and how the London club could do with a striker of the Ivorian’s quality in his pomp at present.
I expect Mourinho’s men to advance but the Portuguese knows this tie will be won and lost over two legs and surely he’d take parity after 90 minutes.
Chelsea have improved since some early season Champions League struggles when they lost home and away to Basel, the Swiss club still somehow managed to fail to qualify for the last 16, but their upcoming opponents ousted Juventus in the group stage and are generally tough to beat in their own stadium.
The exception was a 6-1 thrashing by Real Madrid but any side can be embarrassed by Cristiano and co and Chelsea won’t be helping themselves to half a dozen.
That remains Gala’s only home reversal in the last 11 months and it is six clean sheets in a row now at the Turk Telekom Arena.
Chelsea are no bigger than evens in the Match Odds market but, while I’ll be laying the visitors, I also want a piece of the 8/11 on the game featuring under 2.5 goals.
It takes a great deal of imagination to see this clash featuring plenty of goal-mouth action, I’ll be astonished if’s a thriller, and it is also a strong wager.
3pts Back Under 2.5 Goals @ 1.73 (Sky Bet, Stan James) 2pts Lay Chelsea @ 2.04 (Betfair)