Chelsea take a 2-1 lead into the second leg of their Conference League last-16 tie against Copenhagen when the team second in the Danish League heads to Stamford Bridge on Thursday (20:00).
Goals from Reece James and Enzo Fernandez put Enzo Maresca’s side in the driving seat and the Blues will be confident that they can take the next step towards justifying favouritism in Uefa’s newest competition.
- CHELSEA TO WIN AND OVER 2.5 GOALS
- COLE PALMER TO SCORE AT ANY TIME
- OVER 2.5 COPENHAGEN CORNERS
Goals Are On The Agenda At The Bridge
Chelsea have been fancied to win this competition since the first kick of the season and they have already collected seven straight Conference league victories, so things look to be going swimmingly for the Londoners.
Maresca has steadied the ship after a couple of underwhelming seasons at Stamford Bridge, but they are back in the top four of the Premier League and will also fancy their chances of European glory.
Home form has been central to their season and, after collecting a 2-1 victory in the Danish capital in last week’s first leg, they should have enough to complete the job in style.
They were made to sweat in beating Leicester 1-0 last week, but that was only the fourth occasion in the last 17 home games that they have failed to score at least two goals, so they can win a game that contains at least three goals.
Over 2.5 goals was a winning bet in six of Copenhagen’s last seven Conference league matches and both teams have scored in eight of their last 10, so the goals could flow at the Bridge.
CHELSEA TO WIN AND OVER 2.5 GOALS
Palmer Capable Of Finding His Scoring Touch
Chelsea’s Conference League quest has undoubtedly been boosted by the inclusion of Cole Palmer in their squad for the knock-out stages and while the England midfielder has failed to find the net in his last nine games, this could be the match where this all changes.
He missed a penalty in Sunday’s win over the Foxes, but he has had 32 attempts at goal since his last one went in so it has not been for the want of trying.
The talented playmaker can be relied upon to keep plugging away as shown in his last two home matches - he had seven attempts in the win over Southampton and four against Leicester - so there looks a strong chance that his poor run could come to an end.
COLE PALMER TO SCORE AT ANY TIME
Danes Can Force A Few Corners
One of the most remarkable statistics from last week’s first meeting is that it generated just one corner, but we should not expect a repeat of that on Thursday.
Copenhagen have little choice to push forward and will look to utilise their wing-backs to put pressure on the Chelsea defence, so there is a decent chance they will produce a few flag-kicks.
The Danish outfit played their first game in this season’s competition way back in July as they have had a total of 60 corners in their nine main-tournament matches, so they should be able to force at least three in this week’s return clash.
OVER 2.5 COPENHAGEN CORNERS
