UEFA Champions League defending champions Chelsea will kick-start their title UCL defence this Tuesday when they welcome Russian side Zenit Saint Petersburg to London.
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Key Statistics
Chelsea are unbeaten in their last three Champions League matches
They have kept two clean sheets from their last three UCL games.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have three clean sheets in five competitive matches this season
Zenit are unbeaten in their last nine competitive away games
Overall they have won nine of their last 12 competitive matches (D3)
Head to head (H2H)
This is the first time Chelsea and Zenit Saint Petersburg face each other in the UEFA Champions League.
Latest Performances (90 minutes)
Chelsea: W-D-W-W-D
Zenit: W-W-D-D-W
Chelsea
Chelsea overcame Premier League rivals Manchester City last May to clinch their second Champions League title in history, hanging coach Thomas Tuchel his first taste of Europen trophy after he missed out with PSG two seasons ago.
The German coach is looking to make it three UCKL finals in a row but must begin with a win here to be taken seriously. He has the right tools to do so after solidifying his squad with the additions of Saul Ninguez and Romelu Lukaku.
His side head into this tie with five wins from their last six matches played at Stamford Bridge (L1). after brushing aside Aston Villa 3-0 in their last game, they will be confident of winning against Zenit and top a fairly easy group that also has Juventus and Malmo FF.
Thomas Tuchel will be without American forward Christian Pulisic, while there are doubts over the availability of midfielder N’Golo Kante.
Possible Chelsea starting line-ups
Edouard Mendy, Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger, Reece James, Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Romelu Lukaku.
Zenit
Russian side Zenit have impressively begun their season and are topping their league after scoring 16 times in seven games.
They head into this tie unbeaten in 17 games and won their last match against Akhmat Grozny 3-1.
After failing to get past the group stage last season, Sergei Semak’s side will be looking to make it to the next round this time. With Juventus still struggling under Max Allegri, Zenit will be confident of finishing second.
But they will hope to begin their quest for group qualification with a win here in what is their toughest group game.
Meanwhile, they will travel to London without the services of Russian midfielder Magomed Ozdoyev. Centre-back Dmitri Chistyakov is also an injury doubt for this game.
Possible Zenit starting line-ups
Stanislav Kritsyuk, Aleksey Sutormin, Dejan Lovren, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, Douglas Santos, Aleksandr Erokhin, Daler Kuzyaev, Claudinho, Malcom, Artem Dzyuba, Serdar Azmoun.
Prediction
Despite the quality and exploits of Brazilian duo Malcolm and Claudinho, Chelsea are the better side and are the favourites to win this game. The home advantage will also be a boost for them as they begin their UCL title defence.
