* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
Chelsea will be representing Europe in this season’s FIFA Club World Cup when they take on Asian Champions, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal on Wednesday night in Abu Dhabi.
The Blues are massive favourites to advance to the final but their opponents have a decent amount of talent in their squad and could pose a problem or two. We’ve dived into the stats here to find the three best bets for this Club World Cup semi-final. This has a 16.30 kickoff time so don’t get caught out.
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Al-Hilal vs Chelsea – Wedesday, February 9th: 4.30pm
E4
Short-price punt: Both Teams to Score
There’s little point in dismissing Al-Hilal here. As Asian Champions League winners they’re obviously a decent side and in the previous round of the competitions beat Al Jazira 6-1. Now, Al Jazira, we can all agree, have no right to be in this competition other than it’s being held in their backyard, and Man City’s Sheikh Mansour owns them, which just means they’re loaded rather than any good.
Regardless, Al-Hilal have former Flamengo striker Michael on their books who scored 16 goals over his last two seasons in Brazil. They also have former Porto striker Moussa Marega who scored 19 over his last two seasons in Portugal and former Man United and Watford striker Odion Ighalo as well.
The Saudi side have only gone scoreless in two of their last 20 games in all competitions and with Chelsea keeping just three clean sheets over their last 10 fixtures in all competitions (all against Tottenham) there’s decent odds here for both teams to get on the scoresheet.
Value pick: Chelsea and Over 3.5 Goals
Al-Hilal have been in the goals themselves of late, scoring a total of 16 over their five most recent fixtures and they’re a pretty attack-heavy side so won’t have much to fear here. Even if they wanted to sit back and let Chelsea at them it would be a way of playing football that they’re just not really used to.
While they obviously don’t have the talent of their Premier League opponents they’ll certainly be getting up the field as much as they can and Chelsea are of course lethal on their day and they’ll be eager to add some more silverware to the cabinet. Of course, they’ve got to get to the final first and we see them aiming to impress here and scoring a handful against a side not known for their defensive abilities. We’ve backing Over 3.5 goals here as well.
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Long shot: Chelsea to lead at 20 minutes
Thomas Tuchel likes his team to get ahead early then allow the trailing team to attack and hit them fast on the counter. As such they’ve done quite a bit of heavy lifting in the first half of matches this season. In the Premier League, Chelsea are one of the teams with the highest number of first half goals, with 23 so far this campaign and in the Champions League have scored four goal in the opening 45 over their six matches.
In their last 10 games they’ve scored at least one first half goal in eight. With those stats and form then it’s difficult not to see the Blues taking the lead early in the opening period here.
Al-Hilal v Chelsea betting tips:
Short-price punt: Both Teams to Score
Value pick: Chelsea and Over 3.5 Goals
Long shot: Chelsea to lead at 20 minutes
* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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