Chelsea v Dynamo Kiev: Europa League last-16 preview and tips

Last-16 first leg
TV: BT Sport 2, 8pm Thursday

Maurizio Sarri is sitting a little more comfortably in the Chelsea hotseat after a recent upturn in results and his job security could be given another boost by a comfortable home victory over Dynamo Kiev.

The Blues are favourites to win the Europa League and are facing one of the rank outsiders in the last 16.

Long gone are the days when Andrei Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov spearheaded a Dynamo Kiev a side who were major players in the Champions League.

These days they are punching above their weight by reaching the Europa League round of 16 and that looks about as far as they can go. The Ukrainians are priced up at 15-4 to get past Chelsea and 100-1 to win the competition – only 150-1 shots Slavia Prague are bigger odds.

Dynamo Kiev qualified for the knockout stage by winning a weak group ahead of mid-table French side Rennes, Kazakhstan champions Astana and Czech minnows Jablonec.

They had it a bit tougher in the round of 32, defeating Olympiakos 3-2 on aggregate, but the contests with Chelsea will be far tougher than anything they have experienced earlier in the campaign.

And they will step out at Stamford Bridge with a patched-up side because centre-forwards Artem Besedin and Fran Sol are injured and influential winger Benjamin Verbic is serving a one-game ban.

Third-choice centre-forward Nazariy Rusyn replaced Fran Sol at half-time in Saturday's 2-1 victory away to Desna but the 20-year-old faces a massive learning curve if he is handed a start in London.

The main goal threat to Chelsea may come from winger Victor Tsygankov, who tops Dynamo's league scoring charts with nine goals.

But Dynamo are likely to spend most of the evening on the back foot in an attempt to keep the score respectable and give themselves hope when the teams lock horns in Kiev next Thursday.

Chelsea will be looking to kill the tie, although Sarri may tinker with his starting line-up to keep key players fresh for Sunday's tricky clash at home to Wolves.

However, he has a strong squad with Pedro, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Olivier Giroud eager to make the most of any opportunities.

Giroud and Hudson-Odoi were on target as Chelsea breezed to a 3-0 victory at home to Malmo in the last round and are just 4-1 and 5-1 to net the opening goal against Dynamo.

There isn't much value in either of those quotes but Chelsea to win to nil at a shade of odds-on looks overpriced.

Sarri's side defended superbly to achieve shutouts against Manchester City in the League Cup final and against Tottenham and they can keep injury-hit Dynamo at bay.

Recommendation
Chelsea win to nil
2pts 19-20 Coral, Ladbrokes

Bet on this game at Soccerbase.com

Team news
Chelsea
Chelsea have no fresh injuries but Maurizio Sarri could make a few changes with Sunday's clash against Wolves in mind.

Dynamo Kiev
Benjamin Verbic serves a one-game ban and Fran Sol (shoulder) has joined Mikkel Duelund (ankle), Josip Pivaric (knee) and Artem Besedin (Achilles) on the sidelines.

Key stat
Chelsea have kept clean sheets in four of their last five home matches.

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