UEFA Champions League: Chelsea vs. Juventus Preview, Odds, Prediction

The reigning European champions host Juventus, one of two teams who managed to defeat them this season. The Blues are solid lately, despite having numerous problems with injured and absent players. For the moment, they are still topping the English Premier League and are through in the UCL. On the other side, Juventus showed signs of life in the past two months, even though the Old Lady had some drops that weren’t expected. Overall, Allegri can be satisfied with the way things develop.

Preview

Chelsea (-120) is without Romelu Lukaku, but they keep on pounding at the same pace. The Blues secured a couple of wins without its best scorer, looking great, especially on the defensive end of the field.

Thomas Tuchel created one of the best defenses in Europe upon arriving in London, so it is no wonder to see Chelsea keeping clean sheets in three of the past five games. That happened in six of the recent eight matches.

The Blues are ruthless at home, posting eight victories, one loss, and one draw in the last 10 home events, with the majority of them ending without problems for the backline or goalkeepers. We need to add that Chelsea didn’t allow a goal in both UCL events at Stamford.

Juventus (+400) posted a big win in Rome over Lazio this Saturday, 0-2. It was a routine game for the Old Lady, who scored twice from the penalty spot, with Leonardo Bonucci converting both penalties into goals.

Previously, Juve had two more wins, against Fiorentina, 1-0 and Zenit, 4-2 in the UCL. Allegri’s side caught the rhythm near the end of September and through October posting six straight wins, four of them 1-0, before falling twice in a row to Sassuolo and Verona.

Juventus kept three clean sheets on the previous five road trips, and as the season gets by, the Old Lady looks tougher and tougher in the backline.

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Lukaku is out for this one, and that is sure. The same applies to Mateo Kovacic, while Timo Werner’s status is still uncertain.

Dybala is out for Juve, Bernardeschi too, the same as De Sciglio, Aaron Ramsey and the captain of the Italian national team Giorgio Chiellini.

Head to Head Games

The Old Lady was outplayed in Turin like bever before, with the Blues dominating the matchup from the start until the end. Eventually, the hosts had one shot that beat Mendy, keeping three points in Italy and posting a big win, which they didn’t deserve, we need to say.

Prediction

The Blues are favorites, but we won’t go with the full-time result prediction but instead focus on goals. Under 2.5 goals is our choice because of the style of play both teams prefer, and also, due to the situation in the group. Both teams are safe in the top two spots, and there is no need for them to go out and waste energy chasing the first place. The odds on our choice are -115, which is almost equal to the odds on Chelsea’s win, but in our opinion, far safer.

Pick: Under 2.5 goals

Here are the previews for more UEFA Champions League games:

• Sevilla vs. Wolfsburg
• Man City vs. PSG
• Sporting vs. Borussia Dortmund
• Besiktas vs. Ajax
• Barcelona vs. Benfica
• Man Utd vs Villarreal