Just a couple of days on from our last game, after we made our long awaited return to the Spotify Camp Nou. We now quickly turn our attention back to the Champions League. This time, it’s a big one. A European classic. Live from Stamford Bridge at 8pm local time, its Chelsea up against Barça.
By far and away this is one of our biggest tests of the season so far, especially in the champions league. It’s a vital game in our UCL campaign, and of course it wont be easy. But we’ll be looking to build on from what we saw last weekend against Athletic Club. So lets jump straight into the preview!
A Quick Look at our opponent:
As I mentioned above, it is definitely going to be a very big test for us late tonight. Chelsea have developed into a strong team over the last couple of years, led by Enzo Maresca. Firmly starting to challenge in the premier league, putting pressure on teams above them like City, Arsenal. They have spent a lot of money over the last few years since Todd Boehly came in. And that has been widely reported; it seems that they’re signing players every day at this point.
The overall spine of the team is very young, being one of the youngest teams in the Premier League in fact. Defensively they have suffered from injuries a lot this season. But even with that being said, they still have decent squad depth. But you’d expect that after the money spent. The one big name out of the game tonight though is Cole Palmer. He is back in training as of yesterday, but Maresca confirmed he wont be in time to make it for the game tonight. But Chelsea still have a lot of talent upfront to help in his absence, including Joao Pedri, Pedro Neto and of course, Estevao. Once strongly linked with Barça, he is now almost a regular player for Chelsea.
Predicted lineup:
When we’re looking at our lineup for the game, I honestly don’t think we’ll see a lot of things different from the team that started in La Liga on the weekend. Raphinha is back and ready for the game, but i doubt we’ll see him from the start after only playing 10 minutes on the weekend. Frenkie De Jong will be back, after sitting out against Athletic Club due to suspension. As for the rest of the team, I really don’t see a need for changing things, unless Flick has something totally different up his sleeves. We’ll have to wait and see.
In the case of Frenkie returning to the starting eleven, I would imagine Olmo would drop to the bench. Meaning, in my opinion, our player of the season so far, Eric Garcia will take his place. I’d also look at dropping Martin for tonight, and playing Araujo. I feel against a premier league side like Chelsea, away from home, his physicality could be very important for us. It is going to be exciting though to see what Flick decides to do in a massive game later this evening!
My starting 11:
Joan Garcia
Kounde- Cubarsi- Araujo- Balde
Eric- Frenkie
Yamal- Fermin- Ferran
Lewandowski
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