Chelsea travel to Spain for their second Champions League match of the campaign, facing the group’s main favourites Atletico Madrid.
The Blues hammered Qarabag FK 6-0 in the first group stage match, while Diego Simeone’s side shared the points against AS Roma away.
Antonio Conte will have big decisions to make with his team selection tomorrow as Chelsea will also face title challengers Manchester City on Saturday evening.
The best news ahead of the game is the return of David Luiz, who is currently suspended in the Premier League for his straight red card against Arsenal two weeks back. He’s still ruled out of the Man City clash this weekend, so he’ll be determined to give his everything against Atletico.
But how will the rest of the team line up tomorrow? Here’s our predicted line-up for the game…
Goalkeeper:
Thibaut Courtois – Will definitely start against his former side. Suffered a knock in Saturday’s Stoke game but has already recovered well.
Defence:
Cesar Azpilicueta – Even with a big league tie ahead, Azpi is very unlikely to be dropped. Colossal against Stoke.
David Luiz – As speculated above, Luiz will step in to the starting line-up and make a big contribution in tomorrow’s game.
Gary Cahill – Many would certainly hope to see Andreas Christensen or Antonio Rudiger starting ahead of Cahill here, but Conte benching the England international against Stoke was a big hint of the skipper only being rested for tomorrow. It’s time for us to put our trust in the manager’s decisions.
Midfield:
Davide Zappacosta – A slightly unexpected pick for the line-up, but with Victor Moses playing the full 90Â minutes against Stoke, he needs rest ahead of Saturday’s City game. And judging by his Champions League debut, Zappacosta should be very capable of doing the job against Atletico.
N’Golo Kante – He’s born for these type of games. Vital part of the team against an opposition like Atletico.
Tiemoue Bakayoko – We’re expecting a rather defensive set-up for the game, and which midfield partnership would do the job better than a Kante-Bakayoko pivot?
Cesc Fabgreas – Just like against Tottenham earlier in the season, we can be expecting Conte to snub the classical 3-4-3 formation and switch to a more defensively effective 3-5-2 formation. This will see Fabregas in the attacking midfielder’s role just above Kante and Bakayoko, creating the chances for our two forwards up top.
Attack:
Eden Hazard – The Belgian star was once again left on the bench in the Premier League, but eventually brought on to gain some match sharpness ahead of tomorrow’s game. He’s fully recovered from his ankle injury that kept him out in the beginning of the season, and what a better time to cement his place in the starting line-up than a big game against a big European opposition?
Alvaro Morata – After his first Premier League hat-trick he will be flowing with confidence to face his former Spanish rivals. Michy Batshuayi was impressive against Qarabag, but an away tie against Atletico might be a bit too big of a game for him at this point of the season.
That concludes our predicted Chelsea line-up to face Atletico Madrid tomorrow. How would you like to see us set up tomorrow?
