Europa League: Chelsea v Slavia Prague betting preview, tip & TV details

BT Sport 3, 8pm Thursday

Chelsea’s top-four aspirations suffered a serious setback with defeat at Liverpool on Sunday and winning the Europa League may represent their best chance of securing Champions League football next season.

The loss at Anfield leaves the Blues fifth in the Premier League - behind London rivals Arsenal on goal difference - but time is running out for them to make the top four having played a game more than the other clubs in the hunt.

Bookmakers make Chelsea an 13-8 shot to win Europe's secondary competition - the same price as they are to land a top-four berth - as they look to make it into the penultimate round.

The Blues have yet to be tested in this year's competition and their hard-fought 1-0 win at Slavia Prague in their quarter-final first leg was a fourth Europa League clean sheet on the spin following previous successes over Malmo and Dynamo Kiev (twice).

Sarri has favoured his fringe players over his key performers to get Chelsea this far with Eden Hazard, N'Golo Kante and Gonzalo Higuain among those often saved for domestic duties.

But Chelsea struggled to find any rhythm until Hazard and Kante were introduced from the bench in the Czech capital and Sarri may be tempted to field a stronger side given the current state of affairs in the Premier League.

Slavia lack Chelsea's star quality, but they dumped out Europa League specialists Sevilla 5-4 on aggregate in the previous round and, therefore, can't be underestimated.

However, Slavia's Europa League adventure has also included away defeats at Zenit and Bordeaux, where they failed to score on each occasion, and breaching Chelsea's defence at Stamford Bridge may prove beyond them.

Antonio Rudiger, excellent in the opening leg in Prague, is a notable absentee but no side has kept more clean sheets in the Europa League this season than Chelsea (eight) and Andreas Christensen is an able replacement.

Recommendation
Chelsea to win to nil
1pt 21-20 Coral, Ladbrokes

Bet on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news
Chelsea
Antonio Rudiger limped off in Sunday's defeat at Liverpool and is expected to miss out but Marcus Alonso could return. Ross Barkley may feature in the starting 11.

Slavia Prague
Stanislav Tecl and midfielder Jakub Hromada are long-term absentees. Miroslav Stoch should face his former side. Tomas Soucek returns from suspension.

Key stat
Chelsea have conceded just once in their last six home matches.

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