FC Nordsjaelland vs Chelsea: Champions League Preview

FC Nordsjaelland vs Chelsea: Champions League Preview

After an amazing victory over Arsenal last week, Chelsea know that they cannot afford to get complacent ahead of their visit to Denmark.

After letting go a 2 goal lead against Juventus, Chelsea find themselves 3rd in the group with Ukrainian Champions Shaktar acting as the group pace setters so far. On the other hand Danish Champions FC Nordsjaelland lost their first game in the Champions League 2-0 to Shaktar and find themselves bottom of the group. Although it may be too early to say but anything less than a win for Chelsea today could be a big blow in their quest to retain their Champions League crown.

 Chelsea go into this game with Daniel Sturridge as the only player missing from that squad. His return date is still unknown. There were positives for this Chelsea side seeing Marko Marin make his return in the first team in the Capital One Cup. Robbie Di Matteo will look to make a few changes in this game as he might have an eye on the upcoming game against Norwich in the league.

Expected Lineup:

Nordsjaelland on the other hand have no real injury concerns to their side. Hjuland will go into this game with his favored 4-2-3-1 formation similar to what Chelsea have been playing for the past few months. Although Nordsjaelland lost their key players last season mainly their key CB Bjelland to FC Twente the young replacement Okore has stepped up brilliantly. Both Okore and Adu had a pretty decent game against Shaktar and the fans will be hoping that the players can build on their good domestic form.

Match Facts-

• Chelsea and Nordsjaelland have never met before, although the Blues played FC Copenhagen on the same national stadium, Parken, in 1998 and 2011.
• Chelsea have won all 3 of their previous visits to Denmark, all in Copenhagen

Player to watch- Moses: After making his mark as a substitute, Moses was finally handed his first start against Wolves and he lived upto his hype as well. Moses has been pretty decent so far and has lived up to his expectation. His amazing pace and trickery could be a handful for the Nordsjaelland full backs to deal with. Nordsjaelland full backs have this tendency to make runs and cut in and that may be one of the key areas for Moses to work on.

Prediction: FC Nordsjaelland 0-3 Chelsea

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Shikharr Chandra (@ShikharrC)

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