- Chelsea hosts Lille on Tuesday night.
- Juventus heads for Spain to meet with Villarreal.
The champions continue their defense quest against Lille, and they will play the first meeting of the round of 16 at home. Meanwhile, a couple of thousand miles to the south, Villarreal hosts Juventus. The Europa League winners want to go surprise the continent and go as far as possible in the most prominent European competition.
Chelsea vs Lille
Tuchel’s guys recently became the world champs, and their morale should be very high. However, we didn’t see them particular motivated against Crystal Palace on Selhurst this Saturday.
Chelsea is without a defeat at home for a long time. Currently, the Blues are riding a 15-game defeatless streak at Stamford, which needs to be respected. Also, Tuchel’s unit has been relentless in recent times, netting multiple goals in the latest six events.
Lille slowed down in the past several weeks. The French champions participated in high-efficient games for a long time, but their last three were with under 2.5 goals. It was much different before, with seven that preceded concluding with both sides hitting the back of the net three or more times.
We think that Chelsea shouldn’t have any trouble in beating the Dogues. They got used to having very tough challenges over the past few weeks, the majority of them against defensive-minded units. The odds aren’t high, but they are at least safe, and that is what are we looking for at the moment.
Pick: Chelsea -300
Villarreal vs Juventus
Even though the Yellow Submarine recently had several games without too many goals involved, this team is one of the most interesting for watching in Spain. A vast majority of their contests have ended with both teams scoring and with over 2.5 goals, which wasn’t the case in the previous campaign.
On the other side, Juventus is ravaged by injuries. The biggest two names ruled out are Chiellini and Bonucci, the heart and the soul of the entire team and the pivotal players in the defense. Their absence is one of the reasons why Juve allowed so many goals in the recent few weeks. Locking up the rivals’ strikers was the trademark of the Old Lady’s performances throughout history, and for the moment, they suck in this area of the game. Only three clean sheets in the previous 10 contests are the biggest proof of that.
In general, our pick here would be both teams to score, and we suggest staying away from making picks on the full-time result or anything like that. The two sides are close with quality, and anything can happen. Now, regarding our bet, here is the explanation. The respective defenses are vulnerable and unstable since the start of the year, and they are at a much lower level than the attacks. Therefore, the reasonable decision is to bet on goals.
Pick: Both teams to score -120
Stay tuned for more content, as we also have Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League preview coming up very soon.
