Sporting – Chelsea / Champions League – These two teams are in Group G Champions of this year’s Champions League, which has at the start offered us the most uncertainty because both matches ended with a score of 1-1. Specifically, Portuguese Sporting lost two points away against Slovenia’s Maribor, while the first favourite of the group, the English Chelsea disappointed its fans at Stamford Bridge and played a draw with German Schalke. All this really means that this should be a very interesting and uncertain duel, especially since these two teams have never met before.Begins: 30.09.2014 – 20:45 CET
Sporting
As for Sporting, they last year finally managed to get involved in the fight for the very top of the Portuguese League and thus eventually took an excellent second place and after a long time directly qualified for the Champions League. They continued in a similar pace in the new championship season because they in six rounds recorded two wins and four draws, the last of which was four days ago at home against Porto, so they at this point, even though they are not still defeated, have six points less than the leading Benfica.
We still need to add that they lost victory in the final minutes against Maribor away in the first round of the Champions League, because the match ended with 1-1, so they will have an extremely hard job against Chelsea and Schalke in the first round of the Champions League. But coach Silva pointed out that he has a complete confidence in his team and he believes that they can remain undefeated on Tuesday, and with a little more luck and patience eventually even come to a full loot. Their injured defender Lopes is still not ready to perform in this match.
Probable lineups Sporting: Patricio – Soares, Mauricio, Sarr, Jefferson – Martins, Carvalho, Silva – Carillo, Nani – Slimani
Chelsea
Unlike Sporting, Chelsea is playing brilliantly from the beginning of their domestic championship, so they in six rounds recorded five wins and a draw away against the reigning champion Manchester City, but we should particularly note that they, on average, achieved slightly more than three goals per game. So they last weekend at home celebrated with 3-0 over Aston Villa, which has only further strengthened their leading position, because they now have three points more than their first companion Southampton.
On the other hand, their only blunder in this season can be considered a home draw against Schalke in the first round of the Champions League, while they after that routinely celebrated with a combined composition at Stamford Bridge with 2-1 over Bolton in the League Cup. But Mourinho will now certainly send his strongest forces to the field, especially since they have no problems with absences, and only Remy could replace the exhausted Diego Costa in this match.
Probable lineups Chelsea: Courtois – Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Filipe – Mati?, Ramires – Willian, Fabregas, Hazard – Diego Costa
Sporting – Chelsea PICK
Given that both teams are welcoming this match in Champions League in a good mood, we believe that their main goal now will be to continue their series without defeat and therefore we expect an uncertain game with a small number of goals.
Pick: under 2.5 goals
Stake: 4/10
Odds: 1.86
