Strongest Chelsea Line Up To Play Galatasaray – Bench Torres, Oscar And Willian To Start

After being on the wrong side of the scoreline on Saturday at Villa Park, a result that blew the title race wide open, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea host Turkish Giants Galatasaray in the second leg of the Champions League round of sixteen. The Blues will start as favourites going into this encounter but Roberto Mancini’s side have enough ammunition to cause an unlikely upset. Mourinho’s record at home in the league has been impeccable but the Portuguese has been felled at the hands of Swiss side FC Basel in the group stages of this competition.

Can Chelsea surge ahead into the quarters or will Drogba’s reunion go sour at London? Here is Chelsea’s strongest lineup to see through the second leg.

Goalkeeping:

Petr Cech, the Czech International will be wary of the significant threat that the Turks have on offer. Didier Drogba returns to the ground where he is hailed as a king while the likes of Burak Yilmaz and Wesley Snjeider will be looking to shoot at sight and cause Cech quite a few problems throughout the course of ninety minutes.

Defenders:

The traveling Galatasaray squad have only lost once in their last 23 games but have only won four times in their last 19 travels away from home. The odds of Drogba scoring in his hunting ground is quite high but Chelsea would look up to their defensive discipline to see the night out.

Serbian Branislav Ivanovic will man the right back slot while the ever reliant César Azpilicueta will draft in the left back role. Aston Villa’s pace did cause trouble to Chelsea’s centre back pairing and Roberto Mancini will be quite assured that Drogba and Yilmaz will give Cahill and Terry a lot to think about. Also causing trouble for the Chelsea back four during set pieces would be Chedjou who got his side’s equaliser at home in the first leg.

Midfield:

Chelsea will look forward to Ramires and Frank Lampard to hold fort in midfield as Serbian Nemanja Matic is ineligible to play, having featured with Benfica earlier in the competition. The onus will thus be on the Brazilian-English pair to screen the back four and also support the attacking midfielders ahead joining in attacks. Oscar will start in his advanced role in his favourite number ten position while Willian and the ever nimble Eden Hazard will looking to mount attacks from the wide, gradually darting in to make space for the overlapping full backs to put crosses in the middle.

Since it is a home game, we don’t expect Mourinho to field a defensive lineup and hence the chances of Mikel playing alongside Ramires is unlikely. Although, it is reported that David Luiz is ready to return from his injury and if the Brazilian does prove his fitness on time before the match, expect Mourinho to field Luiz in the holding role ahead of Terry and Cahill.

Strikeforce:

Fernando Torres hardly made an impact at Villa Park and by the look of things, the Spaniard will be relegated to the bench as Mourinho will play Samuel Eto’o in the starting eleven. The Cameroonian will have to take half chances that falls his way and should keep up the pressure on Galatasaray’s backline if he has to get something out of the game.