Football Results

Chelsea is in better mood ahead of the 2nd semi-final leg of the Europa League and there are several reasons for that. The 1st leg played in Frankfurt ended as 1-1 draw and the result is a good opportunity for the English team, while Eintracht should have done better at home. After the match Chelsea won in the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League next season, while Eintracht suffered a heavy defeat and suddenly everything become questionable. This is going to be their first match in London.

Chelsea

Chelsea finally qualified for the Champions League last weekend and with it one great objective has been reached. Also, a great burned was removed from them and now they can focus on the Europa League and try to end the season with a title. Chelsea played well in Frankfurt, or more precisely they played well after being first to receive a goal. They took the initiative in their hands and used tiredness of the home team, so in the end they could be even dissatisfied for not winning the match.

Manager Sarri bravely left E. Hazard on the bench in the 1st leg, who played only in last half an hour. Even without him Chelsea dominated the pitch and he was supposed to be refreshment that will bring triumph, which didn’t happen. Hazard played from the beginning against Watford on Sunday, just like Kovacic and Higuain, but they scored all goals for 3-0 victory in the second half. Kante got injured in the match and is questionable now, but the team will anyway undergo changes compared to the league match.

Probable lineups Chelsea: Arrizabalaga – Azpilicueta, A. Christensen, D. Luiz, Emerson – Jorginho, Kovacic, Loftus-Cheek – Willian, Giroud, E. Hazard

Eintracht Frankfurt

It was visible that Eintracht losing steam as it had three-game winless streak in the Bundeslige before the 1st leg with Chelsea. They started will the match but then experienced a drastic drop in performances and received an equaliser for 1-1, after which they played in fear all the way till the end of match. Somehow they avoided defeat, however, Sunday’s match in Leverkusen has revealed all weaknesses that Eintracht has in the finish of season. Simply, they have strength and rotation of player doesn’t help either, given that manager Hutter doesn’t have too many high quality players at his disposal.

He tried to refresh the team against Bayer but it would be better that he didn’t as Toure and Willems were dreadful, although rest of the team had also underperformed. Product of bad performance was defeat of 6-2, which interestingly enough was set 10 minutes before the end of first half. Besides being shaken by the defeat, they also significantly reduced their chances to end up at the fourth place in the Bundesliga table. They still occupy the position but there are more threats now so it is going to be interesting in last two rounds. Before that Eintracht will need to play the second match with Chelsea, where the strongest team goes on the pitch.

Probable lineups Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp – Abraham, Hinteregger, Hasebe – da Costa, Rode, G. Fernandes, Kostic – Gacinovic – Rebic, Jovic

Verdict:

Chelsea is in much better mood and shape before the 2nd leg. Eintracht’s form is obviously in downward trajectory and everything is much harder for them. We don’t believe that the visiting team can reach the final, but Eintracht can always score a goal and we expect to continue with that practice at Stamford Bridge.

Pick: both teams to score 1.82 - 82/100 @1XBet