Chelsea will seek to clinch knockout qualification as they go away to Belarus where they’ll face BATE Borisov. The blues have been going perfect in Europe with 3 wins out of 3 and a draw here would be enough for them to reach the knockouts. Chelsea dominated the first game and won 3-1 thanks to a Ruben Loftus-Cheek hattrick but now the focus turns to Belarus where the conditions to play won’t be the best. BATE themselves are so far in a 3 team tie with 3 pts each for 2nd place so this is a big game for them.
Key Facts
BATE have played 9 games in european competition including qualifiers. They won 3 drawn 2 and lost 4. They beat and drew with HJK and Qarabag, beat Mol Vidi and got beaten by PSV twice, PAOK and Chelsea conceding 13 goals in their 4 defeats. Struggles against tougher competition.
BATE have conceded 7 goals in their last 2 Europa League games losing 1-4 to PAOK and 3-1 to Chelsea.
Bate have only won 2 of their last 15 Europa League games. 5D 8L.
On average there are 3.6 goals scored in BATE’s Europa League matches this season.
Chelsea are the only unbeaten European side from the top 5 leagues with 13W 3D in all competitions.
Chelsea have been more solid defensively away from home this season with just 2 goals conceded and 5 clean sheets in 7 away games in all competitions this season.
Chelsea have only conceded 1 goal in 3 Europa League games. They’ve also faced the fewest shots in the competitions.
On average there are 2 goals scored in Chelsea’s Europa League matches this season.
Team News
BATE Borisov: Vladislav Malkevich and Vladislav Mulhamedov will be out for this game for the hosts. Neither featured in the first meetings between the clubs.
Chelsea: Morata, Luiz, Rudiger, Alonso all didn’t travel with the squad and Cesc Fabregas is out due to illness for the blues. Star man Eden Hazard will be with the team however. Expect rotation as usual from Sarri for this competition. Olivier Giroud is expect to start up front after missing some tjme with Morata left at home. The likes of Kovacic, Loftus-Cheek, Cahill and Christensen are all expected to start while either Kante or Barkley are most likely to start in place of ill Cesc who started in every Europa league game.
Betting Tips and Predictions
We anticipate Chelsea to get the job done and qualify tonight. They proved to be way too strong for BATE and expect them to do a job here. The conditions are likely to be poor which is why it could be a little harder for the Blues but they should be able to grind out a win. Chelsea to win to nil and an under 2.5 goals are our top picks. We shouldn’t anticipate the Blues to absolutely destroy BATE but they should be able to come away with a 0-1/0-2 win. Just one of the games where they’ll do a “professional job”. Ruben Loftus-Cheek has 4 goals in his last 3 apps including 3 against BATE and is priced at 3.00 to score here. Worth the try!
Match Odds (TonyBet)
BATE Borisov Win – 8.90
Draw – 5.20
Chelsea Win – 1.34
KICK OFF – 8th November 2018 – 5:55pm UK Time
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