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

Chelsea hosts Lille in the UEFA Champions League round of 16. The game at Stamford might be one of the most important for Thomas Tuchel’s boys this year, and they need to be 100% focused on the French rivals. Meanwhile, Lille is one very nasty team with solid individuals who have massive experience. Just to remind you, they managed to win the French Ligue 1 last season ahead of PSG, and that needs to be respected.

Preview

Chelsea (-300) had a very tough experience on the road against Crystal Palace, but managed to squeeze out a victory against the local rivals, 0-1. The reigning European champions weren’t that impressive, but we need to say that they got the job done.

This was the fifth straight win for Tuchel’s guys, who won three times in the regular 90 minutes, and the other two victories were after the extra time. During that stretch, the Blues had three clean sheets, and overall in the last 10 games, they have five such achievements.

Chelsea is without a loss at Stamford for 15 straight events, and is very, very confident when playing at home. They’ve scored twice or more in the past six appearances in front of their fans, and such productivity was constant throughout the entire year.

Lille (+700) played without goals with Metz in their last match at home, which was a surprise just a few expected. Les Dogues aren’t very consistent in recent times, having only four wins over the latest 10 events. They had three draws and posted three defeats during that stretch.

We have to notice that their form and the efficiency of their matches oscillated, going from very high to pretty mediocre and inefficient performances.

The most recent three games on the road were with under 2.5 goals, while the previous seven were all with three or more hits and with both teams netting. Maybe this is just a temporary slowdown, but we’ll see that in the future.

Latest News

Callum Hudson-Odoi and Cesar Azpilicueta are injured but have certain chances to recover until the game. Meanwhile, Reece James and Mason Mount are out for sure.

Right now, there aren’t any injured players on the French team.

Head to Head

Chelsea and Lille were in the same group in the 2019 UCL edition. Back then, we saw the English unit winning in both events, with the same result, 2-1. Azpilicueta was the scorer at Stamford Bridge.

Prediction

The Blues are the favorites. They aren’t playing particularly nice or appealing this year, but that is something Tuchel doesn’t mind about too much. He wants positive results, and we can’t say anything against him in that area. We predict Chelsea’s win on Tuesday night, but to be perfectly straight with you, we don’t expect to see the Blues in some dominant mode. They will score one or two goals at most, while focusing on the other side, on protecting Kepa and their net. It is the recipe Tuchel has used ever since joining this club, and one of the results is the last year’s UCL title.

Pick: Chelsea wins -300

Here are the previews for other UCL games

• Atletico Madrid vs. Man Utd
• Villarreal vs. Juventus
• Benfica vs. Ajax