Chelsea vs Slavia Praha 19/04/19

19 April 2019

After securing a narrow 1-0 road victory in the first leg, Chelsea welcome Slavia Praha to Stamford Bridge for the return leg of their Europa League quarter-finals tie, confident of booking their tickets for the semis.

The Premier League giants have an opportunity to break into the semi-finals of some European competition for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign. However, the Blues go into this meeting off the back of a 2-0 road loss to Liverpool in the PL, which has halted their four-game winning run across all competitions. Maurizio Sarri’s men feel far more comfortable at home, though, having racked up a five-game unbeaten home run in the build-up to this encounter (W4, D1). All four of Chelsea’s home wins in that period has seen them beating their rivals to nil while scoring 2+ match goals each time. Furthermore, the Pensioners have been impressive in the EL at this venue, clinching all five triumphs this term – beating their opponents without conceding a goal on four occasions.

Meanwhile, the visitors have already matched their best European achievement in the last 20 years by securing the EL quarter-finals. In spite of the fact they’ve suffered a defeat in the first leg, Slavia’s impressive road record over the past five months gives them a legitimate right to hope for a positive outcome here – 8 wins in their last 10 road games across all competitions (W8, D1, L1). However, Červenobílí have endured mixed fortunes playing away from home in the EL this term (W1, D1, L2) with three of their five EL away games featuring under 2.5 goals. Notably though, four of Slavia’s last five road clashes have produced over 2.5 goals with Jindřich Trpišovský’s men scoring over 1.5 goals in each.