Chelsea travel to Southern Russia to face Krasnodar on Wednesday, with the teams locked on one point in Champions League Group E.
Krasnodar drew 1-1 with Rennes on Matchday 1, while Chelsea registered a goalless draw with Sevilla last week.
It’s fair to say that Krasnodar have not made the best of starts to the 2020/21 campaign. A 3-1 defeat to Spartak Moscow on Saturday has left them in eighth place – nine points behind the league leaders.
Krasnodar have only managed to win one of their previous four games in all competitions, including a 1-1 draw against Rennes last week.
The Russian side created plenty of goalscoring opportunities on Matchday 1 but only managed to enjoy 37% in France.
After going behind early in the second half to a Serhou Guirassy penalty, Cristian Ramirez earned Krasnodar a precious point.
Only Zenit have scored more goals than Krasnodar in Russia’s top flight this term, so it is hardly surprising that five of Krasnodar’s previous six Champions League games have produced over 2.5 goals.
Over in England, Chelsea find themselves ninth in the Premier League after only managing to win two of their opening six games.
Granted, the Blues have only lost one league game this season, but three draws have prevented them from making an impact at the top of the table.
Frank Lampard’s side conceded nine goals across their first five league games this term, but they now head into Wednesday’s clash on the back of successive clean sheets.
Following a goalless draw with Sevilla last week, Chelsea played out a dull stalemate with Chelsea on Saturday.
It is worth pointing out that the Blues have managed to win just one of their previous six Champions League games and have conceded over 1.5 goals in four of their last six.
Head-to-head: Krasnodar and Chelsea have never played a competitive match against each other, so there are no previous results to consider for this matchup.
Team news: Krasnodar could have as many as nine first-team players unavailable for Wednesday’s game, due to a mixture of injuries and self-isolations.
Chelsea will be without long-term absentees Billy Gilmour and Charly Musonda, although Lampard has no fresh injury concerns.
Both these sides have been scoring plenty of goals recently, but they have also struggled to keep the ball out of their own net.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that Krasnodar and Chelsea will produce over 3.5 goals between them, with the Blues coming out on top.