Chelsea – Barcelona

The hosts will be close to victory over the champions of Spain

At the intersection of the past and current seasons, Chelsea has become the most discussed team in the world in just a month. While still in the process of forming a competitive team capable of competing in both the Premier League and the Champions League, the 'Blues' unexpectedly won the Club World Cup. In the final, they decisively defeated Europe’s top team, PSG, with a score of 3:0. This demonstrated Chelsea's potential, and Enzo Maresca proved the validity of his position in such a prestigious and wealthy club. However, the new season has not yet brought the London team as much joy as they experienced in the summer in the USA. It's even hard to remember which strong opponents Chelsea managed to tackle in European and national arenas. Probably only Liverpool, which today is not heroic at all. Barcelona finds itself in a similar position as their upcoming opponent. Winning the championship title at the end of the last season led to the Catalans being considered favorites for both the new La Liga campaign and one of the three main contenders for success in the Champions League. As of today, both statuses have been transferred from the 'blue garnet' team to other clubs. Bookmakers have identified the home team as the favorites for the upcoming match, offering a coefficient of 2.35 for their victory. Chelsea indeed did not start the season well, but they currently hold second place in the Premier League table. In their last ten official matches, the 'Blues' have only lost once, when they faced the most daring newcomer of the current English season - Sunderland. There was another match in this period that ended in a draw, while Chelsea won the remaining matches. The London team will try to deny Barcelona possession of the ball to play as 'the first number' for victory at home. The 'Blues' have the squad potential for this. Considering that the Catalan club is currently far from ideal form, one should believe in Chelsea's success. At least, in their recent Champions League matches, the 'blue garnet' team failed to earn even a single point at home against PSG, and in the away match against Brugge, they could not secure a victory. The hosts will be closer to winning.