What 2 Watch 4: Chelsea-Barcelona
Chelsea’s European campaign after a year’s absence has seen some nice highs (2-1 win over Atletico, for example) and some rather shocking lows (3-0 loss to Roma, for example), all in the span of just six games. What will tonight bring is anyone’s guess — at their best, Chelsea can hang with the best in the world. And yet this same team can lose by three goals to Bournemouth and Watford. If last year was defined by the passion of relentless consistency, this season has been anything but.
On the other side...
Right back Nelson Semedo is suspended and record-signing Philippe Coutinho is ineligible, but all the other famous and not so famous names are here, happy, and hangry for revenge for 2012. Barca have La Liga more or less wrapped up already so this is their biggest emphasis for the rest of the season.
Since losing their version of the Charity Shield before the start of the season, Barca have lost just one (count ‘em, 1) match all season, a 1-0 cup shocker to local rivals Espanyol — Barca advanced anyway after winning the second leg of that knockout round 2-0. They have conceded just 11 goals in the league (24 games) while scoring 62. They conceded 1 goal in the 6 group stage matches.
Prediction:
Chelsea 1-2 Barcekona