Chelsea

Chelsea kept the pressure on leaders Manchester United with a comfortable 4-1 win over West Ham United this weekend, and they now shift their focus onto this match as they look to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the San Siro and book their place in the Champions League Quarter Final for the 4th consecutive season.

The Blues are 2nd in the Premier League coming into this game and have had a solid season at Stamford Bridge where they are 13-1-1 this season, scoring 45 goals and conceding just 13. However, the 1 defeat came recently against Manchester City. They have also won 6 of 7 games at Stamford Bridge in cup competitions this season, and are 2-1-0 in the Champions League here.

Chelsea have won 9 of their last 10 games at Stamford Bridge and have recovered from their only defeat at home this season by recording 2 wins here since then. With the injury problems facing them being clear to the public in defence, it is no surprise that they have only kept 1 clean sheet from their last 4 games here. The win over West Ham on Saturday extended their record of scoring at least 2 goals at home to 13 in all competitions.

It seems that Ross Turnbull is going to have to continue in goal as Petr Cech and Hilario are both being ruled out for this game. Ricardo Carvalho is the only player to return to the squad from Saturday's game.

Inter Milan

Jose Mourinho keeps insisting that he cannot be beaten at Stamford Bridge, but has failed to mention that the last time Chelsea exited at this stage of the competition, he was the manager overseeing their 1-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge to Barcelona. Inter Milan have been struggling in recent games and have seen their lead in Italy cut by their City rivals AC Milan, and rumours persist that Mourinho will leave at the end of the season.

Inter remain top of Serie A, but the weekends results have seen their lead cut to 1 point with 11 games left to play. They are 7-4-3 in League games away from the San Siro where they have scored 26 goals and conceded 14. While that record is solid enough, in Europe they have struggled more often away from home, going 1-1-1 this season with 3 goals scored and 4 conceded.

The leaders of Serie A have only won 1 of their last 5 Serie A games and were humbled 3-1 at Catania last Friday. Inter have only won 1 of their last 5 away games, although the defeat at Catania was their first away from home in 7 games. The defeat on Friday was the first suffered by Inter in 17 matches in all competitions.

Mario Balotelli is a doubt for Inter as is Davide Santon. Wesley Sneijder was ill on Monday but it would be a huge surprise if he does not start.

Head to Head

This will be the first competitive meeting between the sides at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have reached the Semi Finals of this competition in 5 of the last 6 seasons and the last time they failed to do so was when Jose Mourinho was the manager of the side.

Inter Milan will not have happy recent memories of trips to England. They have been knocked out at this stage of the competition by Liverpool and Manchester United in the last 2 seasons and on both occasions they were beaten 2-0 in England.

Prediction

Chelsea have had a couple of concerns defensively, with the loss of their first choice goalkeeper and the revelations about John Terry's private life seemingly affecting his performances in games. However, they do have a very strong presence up front in Didier Drogba and will be confident they can get the necessary result to progress here.

The return of Jose Mourinho to Stamford Bridge has captured much of the headlines and dominated previews of the game, including this one. He will be well aware of the power of this Chelsea side and will really need to get his Inter side performing better than they have been in recent weeks. Inter will feel a little fortunate of their lead from the first leg and I think they will need to score in this game as I cannot see them keeping Chelsea out.

The first goal is going to very important in this game. If Chelsea get it, I feel they will go on to the Quarter Final with a bit to spare as I feel they will be able to then pick Inter off on the counter. Inter Milan have not had the best of records against the English sides in recent seasons and I think this will be another one of those occasions. I will pick Chelsea to win, and do enough in 90 minutes to go through.

The Pick :

Chelsea 2-0 Inter Milan

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Chelsea WIN

HANDICAP BETTING :

Chelsea - 1 Asian Handicap