UEFA Champions League Preview – Group H

The reigning UEFA Champions League winners, Chelsea have are in Group H, with Juventus, Zenit, and Malmo, and have a nice chance to proceed to the knockout stage without some particular trouble. The Blues will have Juve against themselves, with the Italians still recovering from Ronaldo’s departure, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Zenit is on the rise, but the Russians can’t challenge Chelsea, while Malmo’s destiny is the only certain thing here – they will be last.

Chelsea

The champions landed Lukaku, and that is it. They now have a perfectly balanced team, able to defeat any team in the world. The defense is maybe the best in Europe, midfield is compact, without too many superstars, but with fantastic individuals who work as one, while the offensive line has everything, starting with Pulisic’s creativity, Ziyech’s skills, Werner’s speed, and Lukaku’s power. Of course, and Havertz’s touch for scoring.

Tomas Tuchel rose Chelsea from the dead, making their defense rock solid. If you noticed, the Blues are rarely allowing goals, and that will be the case in this campaign too.

We will not take too much of your time to mention all the big names in this team, but go with a piece of advice. When Chelsea plays at home, bet on them keeping a clean sheet or winning with a -1.5 handicap.

Juventus

What will Old Lady do without Ronaldo? If there is some sense in Allegri’s mind, he will promote Paulo Dybala to a new leader and continue where Juve stopped at the end of the previous season. This is a perfect moment for changes, especially because Juve has one superstar in the making on its roster – Federico Chiesa.

We are still not sure about the efficiency of their matches without Ronaldo, because the Portuguese contributed a lot upfront. Alvaro Morata is back, Moise Kean too, and Kaio Jorge landed from Santos, and he should be an interesting prospect.

Allegri plays interesting football overall, but right now, his primary goal is to stabilize the locker room and boost the players’ confidence. Ronaldo’s departure left a trace on them, that is certain, but also opened the door for new opportunities.

Zenit

The Russian champs are very thankful for betting on over 2.5 goals in the domestic championship. Zenit is an attack-first crew, and all the players are involved in scoring goals. Sergey Semak made a team that isn’t afraid to concede because, in the end, Zenit usually scores more goals than allows.

There has been a slight problem with the first star of the team, veteran striker, Artem Dzyba, who is the best player and the scorer, and apparently, the 33-year old was at the exit doors. He didn’t leave the team, but do keep an eye on his case in the future.

As said, over 2.5 goals are something normal and usually in all of their matches, so don’t hesitate to bet on that each time you see Zenit.

Malmo

The Swedish side had a rough path to the UCL, with Glasgow Rangers and Ludogorets in the way. They successfully solved both problems, reaching the promised land and pretty much fulfilling their goal for this year when it comes to the international matches.

Anel Ahmedhodzic is the highest-valued player in their team, with $5 million, and that tells you a lot about the possibilities of this unit.

We don’t want to underestimate or diminish their success, but Malmo can’t compete with the three above-mentioned sides. They are a hard-working and physical unit, but very limited in so many aspects.

Here are the peviews for other UEFA Champions League groups:

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G