Chelsea face Borussia Dortmund in the last 16 of the Champions League this evening in leg one.
It presents Chelsea with a rather pressure-free chance if you like, to put in a good performance and hopefully come away with a good result to bring back to Stamford Bridge. I say pressure-free, but with our social media fanbase you can never be fully pressure-free at Chelsea. But in a sense that nobody is expecting us to win the UCL this season, and I’m sure not many are even expecting us to get past Dortmund, so the expectations are low off the back of our poor form and results.
Whether that makes any odds at all remains to be known, but I might be in the minority again in thinking we can knock Dortmund out here.
Dortmund came second in their UCL group, only winning two games, drawing three, and losing one.
In the Bundesliga though, they are in third place just three points off top spot after winning every one of their last five matches. They score a lot of goals, but they also concede fairly freely.
Obviously we know their dangermen, with Jude Bellingham being one of them. Although, it was reported yesterday that Youssoufa Moukoko is likely to be out for both legs after suffering an injury. That is great news for us.
They have a solid team though with good experience and quality. They line up with a back four, with Emre Can holding in front.
It will be interesting to see how they approach this game, with Dortmund also being a team that like to have the lions share of possession, as do Chelsea. I can’t see them changing their ethos and that might actually suit Chelsea.
We have struggled playing against these low block teams who sit off and let us control, we struggle to break them down and find chances. And with the likes of Mykhailo Mudryk, Noni Madueke, Joao Felix, and Enzo Fernandez, we could really thrive with more space opening up in attack and playing more on the counter if you like. We have some immense pace and vision now, we can really use that in this type of game.
It will be an interesting match up for sure, and it’s a hard one to call. But if Chelsea can go there and get a result, at least a draw, then we have a really good chance to knock them out.
You’d assume that both Denis Zakaria and Mateo Kovacic will be in line for the squad, and Kovacic is probably slightly ahead in terms of a starting place.
So with that in mind, here is my predicted Potter starting Xl:
Obviously there is a question of fatigue for some of the players such as Thiago Silva and even Reece James. But I also think Potter will be very keen on putting on a good performance in front of the world, that he wont have much freedom to rest players. He needs all his key players.
I’m hoping that Ben Chilwell is finally ready for a start too, because Marc Cucurella needs to be taken out of the limelight.
The midfield concerns me with a lack of defensive stability, but there really aren’t many other options still.
I think we draw the first leg and win the second back at Stamford Bridge! Let’s go Chelsea!
