Charlie Nicholas is of the opinion that Chelsea will lose tonight’s fixture against Bayern Munich at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues have been drawn against Hansi Flick’s side in the last 16 of the Champions League after finishing second in their group. Tonight’s match will be the fifth meeting between the two sides with Chelsea having won just one match against them back in 2005 (the 2012 final counts as a draw since the match was decided on penalties).
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Nicholas has predicted Frank Lampard’s side to lose 1-3 to the Bavarians at home. In his column for Sky Sports, the pundit wrote: “What Frank Lampard is doing, playing the youngsters, is excellent. I see a style, which I don’t with some of the other teams that are rebuilding. But they are still unpredictable. There’s a vulnerability to them.
“Bayern came and battered Tottenham, annihilated them, but they do struggle at the back and they are being questioned with RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund running them close in the Bundesliga.
“They are not as good as they have been in the past; I think they’ve regressed since Jupp Heynckes. They play narrower with Philippe Coutinho and Serge Gnabry. Gnabry has proven a lot of us wrong, as he was not cutting the mustard at Arsenal, but he has been excellent. But I think they will prevail here; I don’t think Chelsea are at this standard yet.”
Given that the Blues lost Eden Hazard in the summer and weren’t allowed to sign any players, they have done well to be fourth in the Premier League this season so far. However, they have struggled for consistency and it’ll be very hard for them to beat Bayern who have got some very good players in their squad.
Chelsea seem the underdogs for this tie and even at home, it seems very hard for them to win. However, they have some decent players who could give the Bundesliga champions a run for their money.