PAOK vs Chelsea

UEL 2018-19 – PAOK vs Chelsea Match Preview

Europa League favourites Chelsea begin their first Europa League campaign in the group stages in over a decade. The only time they participated was after being knocked out of CL in 2013 and actually winning the competition. Now, Chelsea go away to Greece where they will have to face a tough PAOK side. This is probably Chelsea’s toughest game in the group stages as a whole given the other opponents. Can PAOK pull a surprise of will English league leaders Chelsea continue their perfect start and pick up a key win?

Key Facts

PAOK have already played 6 european games this season in UEFA Champions League qualifiers against Basel, Spartak and Benfica where they just missed out on top flight competition losing to Benfica.

In those 6 games PAOK had quite a few high scoring games. 4 of those 6 had over 2.5 goals. They scored 10 and conceded 8 in those games.

In their domestic league, PAOK have made a solid start with 3 wins out of 3.

Aleksandar Prijovic is PAOK’s top scorer with 5 goals. 4 of those came in Europe.

PAOK are a very tough side at home, last season they won 13 of 15 games and their only losses were due to them being awarded by Greek FA to their opponents. They won 13 of the 13 they actually played. This season they’ve won 3 of 4 (2 of in 3 europe).

Chelsea are currently in red hot form. 5 wins from 5 in BPL and are top of the league. They’re also tied for top scoring team with 14 goals.

Eden Hazard is Chelsea’s top scorer with 5, he’s also got 2 assists and he didn’t even start the first two games. However he may not feature to rest purposes here.

Defensively, Chelsea are suspect they’ve allowed sides such as Newcastle and Cardiff to punish them. They only conceded 4 in 5 but if you’d watched the games you’d see that they’ve could’ve conceded a lot more.

This is the first time for PAOK and Chelsea meeting each other in UEFA competition.

PAOK have played against 2 England oppositions at home, they didn’t lose either match beating Arsenal in 97 and Spurs in 2011. Chelsea themselves are undefeated against Greek teams.

Team News

PAOK: PAOK are coming into this game with a fully healthy squad. There is a possibility of squad rotation because they have a huge match coming up in their domestic league against AEK Athens. PAOK do have players with some premier league experience such as Akpom, Canas, Jose Angel Crespo who could all feature here against Chelsea. PAOK are definitely going to be no pushover and at home this squad is more than capable of snatching a point or even all 3 points whether their squad is rotated or not.

Chelsea: Chelsea have a nearly healthy squad themselves, although Fabregas and Loftus-Cheek are in question to feature as they’re nursing injuries. Fabregas could make his first start of the season if he’s fit enough. Expect Chelsea to rotate nearly the whole first 11 meaning players such as Hazard, Kante, Jorginho, Alonso won’t feature in this match. However, because Chelsea have such a deep squad we will still see a very strong side out there. The likes of Willian, Morata, Barkley, Emerson, Zappacosta are all most likely going to feature. Kepa will be replaced by Caballero and we could even see the talented youngster Callum Hudson-Odoi. Sarri’s been using 4-3-3 and is expected to continue to do so with a rotated side this time around. Chelsea are still fully expected to win this match up even without their biggest stars.

Betting Tips and Predictions

This game has the potential to be a cracker. PAOK’s European games in CL qualifiers were top quality against the likes of Benfica and Spartak so with Chelsea coming to Greece this should be very interesting. Given that Chelsea are now attack based and don’t really defend that well we should see BTTS – Yes which is tipped at 1.85. Expect PAOK to give Chelsea a very tough match and we wouldn’t advise to bet on a Chelsea win because its very risky as PAOK are a very tough outing at home plus its not a 1st string 11 for Chelsea. We’re looking at this game as a potential 1-1 draw or a 2-1 win for either side. We’d still tip Chelsea as the bigger favourites to win but we just don’t believe its worth the risk. They may just take the point and move on.

Match Odds (TonyBet)

PAOK Win – 4.55

Draw – 3.65

Chelsea Win – 1.77

KICK OFF – 20th September 2018 – 5:55pm UK Time