Basel - Chelsea Prediction 25/04/2013

Chelsea as away favourites I can understand, but how come that Benfica are favourites away to Fenerbahce? That does not make sense, in my opinion. It is not that Benfica have performed poorly in their away fixtures in Europe this season, but they are here in the semi final thanks to their 100% home record.

I do not think they are even thinking about winning this first leg, but a draw would be the perfect result for the Portugese. Regular defenders Andre Almeida and Luisao are out of this game along with their midfielder Enzo Perez.

M Sow did not play against Lazio, but tomorrow he will line up again alongside D Kuyt and Webo in the Fenerbahce front line. I have to take a stand for the home side.

Avoiding the loss, or even losing by the one goal is probably what Chelsea would accept in this first leg. In other words, I should think that Chelsea will be a bit defensive tomorrow, at least to start with. Expect Benitez to send out a sturdy group against Basel. J Terry and F Lampard, for example, are likely starters this time. V Moses, Benayoun and fit again duo A Cole and G Cahill could also feature, but no Demba Ba.

I noticed that players like Salah and Serey Die started on the bench for Basel at the weekend, P Degen and Cabral as well. Only Dragovic and Voser were on their injury list. There is a decent chance that Dragovic will be fit for tomorrow’s game.

Basel in Europe can never be underestimated, this we should know by now. Man United, not so long ago, and Tottenham this season have been knocked out by Basel and it is a very confident Basel side that Chelsea will face tomorrow.

Chelsea are playing good football, hard to beat as always, and it was a surprise when Suarez found a way of equalising in the dying minutes at the weekend. It only goes to show, you cannot control a game on this level in modern football, not in Britain not even in Italy. I smell a draw here.