Premier League runners-up, Chelsea FC welcome Belgium league champions KRC Genk in their Champions’ League group E encounter. Chelsea come home after coming off a 1-1 draw against Valencia in Spain while Genk lost to German side, Bayer Leverkusen on their last away trip.
Chelsea lie on top of their group, with 4 out of a possible 6 points, while Genk are at the bottom, with 1 pt from a maximum of 6. While many do not expect Genk to make it to the knock-out stages they can make things interesting in their group if they continue to take points off other teams, like in the 0-0 draw against Valencia at their home ground Cristal Arena.
Chelsea will be without Ramires, who sustained a knee injury at the weekend and Michael Essien, who is expected to be out till January. On the other hand, Genk have a whole host of injuries with Daniel Pudil (hamstring) and Nadson (ankle) being doubtful, and David Hubert, Jeroen Simaeys and Torben Joneleit all being sidelined.
Chelsea haven’t conceded a goal in three European home encounters against Belgian teams, winning all three of them. Chelsea have also been the most accurate team in the Champions League, with 68% of shots on target.
Apart from qualifiers, Genk haven’t won any of their past twelve European encounters, drawing six and losing six.
Genk have scored 0 goals in the Champions league so far, and it would be a monumental task for them to score past a Chelsea defence consisting of Jose Boswingwa, Ashley Cole, John Terry and David Luiz, with Petr Cech in goal.
A win for Chelsea here would go a long way in ensuring that they finish on top of their group, thus avoiding European stalwarts like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Inter and others in the knock-out stages.
89.66% of bets are on Chelsea, while only 6.9% of them are on Genk and 3.45% on the draw.
Chelsea vs Genk Odds
One can get Chelsea ML at 1.12 at sportsbook 5Dimes while Genk are 35.86 to pull off an upset. The draw is priced at 10.56.
Chelsea vs Genk Predictions
After looking at the various statistics and scenarios, four bets that I like are:
Chelsea -2.5 on Asian handicap: Expect Chelsea to score a handful of goals to increase their goal ratio and with their sturdy defense, to shut-out Genk.
Chelsea HT/FT: Chelsea will come out strong, score early goals and put the game to bed in the first half.
Chelsea team total O3: Chelsea will try and improve their goal difference to ensure they have the upper-hand in-case they are tied on points with other teams, and who better to score goals against, than then bottom team in the group.
Genk team total U0.5: Their current form so far in the Champions’ League, combined with the history of Belgian teams in the Champions’ League vs. Chelsea and Chelsea’s mean defence make this a strong play.
THE PLAYS: Genk team total U0.5 -185 at 5Dimes, Chelsea HT/FT -233 at 5Dimes
Champions League betting • Chelsea betting • Genk betting