Morata has started training with Chelsea again. I guess his injury wasn't as bad as initially thought
I do think we'll have to beat Chelsea if we're going to progress and our best chance of that is likely to be the home tie. It's not beyond us to get something from this game tho.
You could certainly play Kolarov in a back 3 or maybe it's time for Moreno to step up. I do think a back 3 is our best bet here.
Did you see the second half of the home tie against AM? If hoping for a win at AM is our best bet, I look forward to Europa.
Please try to get at least a point from this game. Don't let it be ugly. I honestly think there is a 20-25% chance that you could win. Not much but something. At least Chelsea is dealing with a number of injury problems as well. I think your best bet would be to try and win midfield battles. Drinkwater, Kante, and Moses are all out for them. Nainggolan, Strootman, and DDR I think have a good chance of catching them in the midfield.
Different time, different team. That was right at the beginning of the EDF era and nobody was on the same page. I'm not saying that we are going to win or our chances are better than 50-50 but if can get healthy we have a decent chance. AM have struggled to score this year and I think there is a fair chance we can keep a clean sheet against them.
Well c'mon now, that's a big if. My point is simply this, if we dont beat Chelsea either home or away then we'll be going in to our penultimate game away to Atletico in 3rd place (assuming AM do the double on Qarabag, which is likely) and needing at worst a draw there to still stand a chance of 2nd. Would you fancy our chances? Not sure I would. Besides if we beat AM we can progress with another win at home to Qarabag without getting a single point off Chelsea. Basically if we dont beat Chelsea once we're faced with the scenario of having to get something away to AM and that's not a scenario I think I'd like the look of. And even if we did manage to say, draw with AM in this scenario, we still wouldn't qualify if AM went and beat an already group topping Chelsea (very possible). So you see where I am coming from yes? We dont beat Chelsea once we're heading to the EL as I see it.
If you guys lose to Chelsea tomorrow and draw them in Italy, draw Atletico again in Spain, and Chelsea beat Atletico again last game, you should go through. Assuming you guys and atletico take max points against Qarabag.
(Everything below assumes that Qarabag will lose all their games) Again something significant is being overlooked in this scenario. That being that AM would go into that final game against Chelsea needing to win. Chelsea on the other hand would have already topped the group and would have nothing really to play for. I for one would fancy AM to win the game in that situation. I dont think we can be relying on Chelsea doing us a favour if they've already topped the group. But I've actually looked at it again and even if we get 3pts off Chelsea (lets say a home win) we'll still need a score draw at worst away to AM. Lets say we lose to Chelsea away but beat them at home and AM beat Qarabag twice. Here's your table Chelsea 9 AM 7 Roma 7 Chelsea beat Qarabag and if we lose to AM we're out. So basically even if we get 3pts off Chelsea, we'll have to get a score draw away to AM. And if we dont manage to beat Chelsea once, we'll have to beat AM away. Big ask either way.
Thats only if Atletico beat Chelsea in England. While its not good to rely on Chelsea doing you guys a favor, Conte is the type of manager that will go for every game regardless of how much it means. I know Conte, he used to coach Juventus and Azzurri.
If Qarbag lose all their games we need 11 points to guaranty qualification, if they steal a couple of points from someone then maybe less. Right now we have 4 plus what should be easy 3 from Qarbag. We need 4 points from the other 3 matches.
Conte has been complaining about a lack of depth in his squad all season. They have injury issues right now. You honestly think Conte picks his strongest team for a meaningless game? And do you really think whatever team he picks busts a gut to beat AM in a meaningless game? I would strongly fancy AM to beat Chelsea in a must win game for them and a meaningless one for their opponents.
I do not know for sure, but Conte definitely did in the last EPL games way way after he secured the title for Chelsea, which is what arguably costed Chelsea the FA Cup.
seriouslyyyyyy. All the hypotheticals are making me nauseous. I know we're massive underdogs, but damn. We have Bruno --they don't. Advantage us.
Get ready for another Manchester or Bayern disaster. It is not so bad however; our Zeman version 2.0 will say we were unlucky, we tried; hit a post, injuries, what do we expect we are not Napoli etc. At least, maybe we will get some comfort from Napoli fans after the loss.