Chelsea will take on Turkish giants Galatasaray in the Champions League round of 16 knock-out tie on Wednesday at Istanbul.
The much hype surrounding this match is the return of club legend Didier Drogba to the Bridge, but Jose Mourinho will have the plans ready in place in stopping the Ivorian from scoring.
Although the Blues haven’t lost a single game at home in the league, but they’ve already suffered defeat in this competition at the Bridge, when FC Basel stunned them in the group stages of Champions League.
David Luiz suffered a muscle injury that ruled him out against Everton and may miss out for this tie as well. Hence, Mourinho would go with same back four that started in the last match.
Nemanja Matic has been superb since he re-joined the club in January. His dynamic presence in the midfield makes him already a key cog in the well drilled machine of Mourinho. But he is cup-tied, having already played for Benfica in UCL.
Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel is doubtful, but Mourinho said “We have three days so let’s see. With Mikel and David Luiz, I don’t know if they can recover. It’s important we have at least one of them because we don’t have Matic for the Champions League.”
Salah is also cup-tied having played for Basle this season already while Oscar is doubtful for this tie. Samuel Eto’o could start as a lone forward, while Fernando Torres may be used from the bench.
Prediction: 2-0; Drogba threat will be there throughout the match but Chelsea have enough quality to take a healthy lead in the first leg.
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