Malmo vs Chelsea Betting Pick | Champions League

Champions League

2021-11-02 - Malmo vs Chelsea

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Malmo v Chelsea
Football: European Champions League Group Stage
Tuesday 2nd November 2021 - Kick Off 5:45pm
This game is live on TV

Malmo

It was never a realistic aim for Malmo to be thinking about a place in the Last 16 of the Champions League, but they are going to have to get through plenty of work if they are even going to have an opportunity to fall into the Europa League. Heavy defeats in the Group means Malmo will likely have to beat Zenit St Petersburg and hope for an upset against either Chelsea or Juventus to have a chance of finishing third in this Group.

They are bottom of the pile with half of their Group fixtures completed, but Malmo do have two of the remaining three games to be played at home. The side had to come through four Qualifying Rounds to earn a place in the Group Stage and Malmo won all 4 ties at home, but Juventus secured a comfortable 0-3 win here in the Group.

Malmo are unbeaten in 3 games in all competitions and have won back to back fixtures since their heavy defeat at Chelsea on Match Day 3 of the Champions League Group Stage. They have won 3 of their last 4 at the Eleda Stadion, but Malmo lost the other fixture played in that time.

Niklas Moisander is available for selection having only recently returned from an injury.

Chelsea

A loss to Juventus may not be a fatal one to stop the European Champions from winning this Group and thus be afforded a more manageable Last 16 tie than if they finished second in the section. For now the concentration for Thomas Tuchel and his Chelsea team is to make sure they do not give Zenit St Petersburg and Malmo any hope and a win on Tuesday will mean they have one foot in the next Round.

Wins over Zenit St Petersburg and Malmo at Stamford Bridge have helped Chelsea into 2nd place in this Group behind Juventus and the top two will be clear if they both win on Match Day 4. Thomas Tuchel is only focusing on his own team who had been unbeaten in 4 away Champions League games before the loss in Turin on Match Day 2.

Chelsea beat Newcastle United this past Saturday and they are now unbeaten in 6 games in all competitions since the narrow defeat to Juventus. The Blues have won 5 of those fixtures in normal time and Chelsea have won back to back away games at Brentford and Newcastle United since the defeat in Italy.

Mateo Kovacic, Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner are all expected to miss out until after the next international break. Changes are likely to be made for the early Tuesday kick off, despite the importance of the fixture, while Christian Pulisic could be involved as he finally makes his return to the squad.

Head to Head

Chelsea hammered Malmo 4-0 at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago.

These teams met in the 2018/19 Europa League Knock Out Rounds and Chelsea won both Legs.

The game here finished 1-2 in favour of Chelsea.

Prediction

Winning Champions League Groups are really important for teams who wish to go as deep as possible in the competition and Chelsea are still in a position to do that. They will likely need to win their remaining three games to have a chance and that should keep them focused, as well as the fact that they would be leaving the door open to Zenit St Petersburg and Malmo if they were to slip up here.

Thomas Tuchel is a manager who will refuse to accept a drop in standards and that should mean a strong Chelsea team can earn a comfortable enough win in Sweden.

Take nothing away from Malmo who have done really well to even make the Group Stage of the Champions League, but they have looked well short of the quality needed. All three defeats have been one-sided and Malmo have created very little in the Group Stage to suggest they can turn things around.

Chelsea have been really balanced under their German manager and they have kept clean sheets in 3 of their last 4 games with the sole exception being the Match Day 2 defeat at Juventus. In the 10 Champions League games played under Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea have earned 7 clean sheets and the feeling is they won't want to offer any encouragement to Malmo here either.

Defensively there has been an assuredness about Chelsea and, even with changes, I think they can win here with another clean sheet.

The Statistics :

MALMO LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2021-09-14	L	0-3	H v Juventus
	2021-08-18	W	2-0	H v Ludogorets
	2021-08-03	W	2-1	H v Rangers
	2015-11-25	L	0-5	H v Paris_SG
	2015-10-21	W	1-0	H v Shaktar_Donetsk
	2015-09-30	L	0-2	H v Real_Madrid

CHELSEA LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2021-09-29	L	1-0	A v Juventus
	2021-04-27	D	1-1	A v Real_Madrid
	2021-04-07	W	0-2	A v Porto
	2021-02-23	W	0-1	A v Atletico_Madrid
	2020-12-02	W	0-4	A v Seville
	2020-11-24	W	1-2	A v Rennes