Champions League returns at a tough time for Chelsea. The team is winless in their last three matches despite spending more than €300 million in January to bolster the squad. Chelsea have improved defensively of late, but it has come at the expense of their attacking firepower, as they look to weather a brutal run of injuries that has decimated the squad. Since a 2-1 away win against Red Bull Salzburg on October 25, Chelsea have failed to win any of their last nine matches on the road across all competitions, and securing a positive result against Dortmund on Wednesday could prove challenging as they have won only three of their last 11 away meetings with German opposition.
Borussia Dortmund have been impressive in 2023; at Werder Bremen, they extended their winning streak to six games across all competitions. Despite winning only two of their six matches in the Champions League group stage earlier this season, Dortmund managed to finish above both Sevilla and Copenhagen to advance to the last 16, and they will now endeavour to beat an out-of-sorts Chelsea side over two legs as they bid to reach the quarter-finals for just the third time in the last nine seasons.
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Ryerson, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Guerreiro; Bellingham, Can; Adeyemi, Reus, Brandt; Haller
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Arrizabalaga; James, Thiago Silva, Koulibaly, Chilwell; Loftus-Cheek, Fernandez; Mount, Felix, Mudryk; Havertz
Chelsea have been far from their best for some time now and Potter will need his players to finally click if they are to come away from Germany with a positive result against a high-flying Dortmund outfit. BVB may be without the services of Moukoko, but they still have enough quality in the final third to cause Chelsea problems and we are predicting the hosts to prevail in the first leg by the odd goal in three.
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