Chelsea face test in Lisbon

It has been a terrific start to the season for Chelsea, who are currently sitting top of the English Premier League. Clear of Southampton in second place by 3 points and Manchester City in third by 5 points, Jose Mourinho will be delighted with how things are progressing during his second spell at Stamford Bridge. However, Chelsea`s Champions League campaign didn`t start off in the way that Mourinho expected, dropping points at home to German club Schalke was certainly not in the scri pt and makes the visit to Sporting Lisbon, in Mourinho`s home country of Portugal, even more important.

Sporting Lisbon remain unbeaten in their last five games, having been held to a 1-1 draw by FC Porto on the weekend. In the five game unbeaten sequence, Sporting have only actually won two of the games, drawing three and finding the back of the net consistently seems to be their main area of concern. Coming in to the match against Chelsea level on points with the group favourites may seem like a good position to be in but the Portuguese will have wanted to have claimed a victory away to minnows Maribor in their opening fixture of the group.

Sporting Lisbon have a very impressive European record at home and are unbeaten in their last 16 games at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, with 13 of these resulting in wins, very fine form indeed. However, Chelsea will provide probably their sternest test since the start of that unbeaten run of home games. Having dropped two points against Maribor, Sporting can not afford to lose this one and are available at 14/5 with bet365 to come away with a point and keep their unbeaten home record intact. Goal scoring has not been Sporting`s speciality so far this season and they will be hoping that striker Islam Slimani, 17/2 to score first with bet365, can recapture his world cup form for Algeria and come good in this game. On loan winger Nani will know Chelsea well, having played against them for Manchester United and is capable of scoring goals on his day, paddypower offer odds of 14/1 for him to find his scoring boots on Tuesday night and get the first goal.

With doubts remaining over the fitness of leading goal scorer Diego Costa, Jose Mourinho may have to shuffle things around in attack. New arrival Loic Remy could be in line for a start and is 5/1 with bet365 to score first and 13/8 to find the back of the net at any time during the match. Cesc Fabregas opened his goal scoring account for Chelsea in the first round of Champions League fixtures and is priced at 10/1 with paddypower to double his total for the season and score the first goal of the game in Lisbon. Chelsea will want to come away from this game with a win, especially having dropped points at home against Schalke but do not expect the game to be a high scoring affair. Mourinho will be happy to come away with a 1-0 victory and this can be backed at 6/1 with betfred.

Considering Sporting Lisbon`s capacity for keeping games tight, there is every chance that this will be a defensive game, with few clear cut chances, making the 5/6 with BetVictor for there to be under 2.5 goals a real possibility.

Chelsea are currently 15/2 with ladbrokes to win the Champions League this season and Sporting Lisbon are currently available at 500/1 with SkyBet.

Go To bet365

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29/09/2014     © Frixo 2024