Chelsea will be hoping to recover from a devastating 6-0 defeat to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City on Sunday afternoon at Etihad Stadium.The atmosphere in the dressing room can hardly be at the lower level following such tough loss which saw the Blues fall down to 6th place in the league ladder.Can Maurizio Sarri find the way to motivate his lads to bring their best to Thursday’s first leg of the R32 Europa League tie against Malmo?The Blues returned to Europa League for the first time since winning the competition back in 2012/13. They did not have any troubles steaming their way to the top of Group L with five wins and one draw in six matches.Chelsea shipped only three goals in the process. They are obviously massive favourites to advance past Malmo here, but who could back their win away at Swedbank Stadion at the odds of 1.30?
The Europa League has provided Sarri with some joy this season, though, having seen his side cruise through Group L with 16 points from a possible 18.Chelsea are one of seven teams to remain unbeaten thanks to home-and-away wins over POAK and BATE, but they could not complete the clean sweep as they were held to a 2-2 draw by Vidi in their final group outing.
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Malmo lineup:
Dahlin; Nielsen, Bengtsson, Safari; Vindheim, Christiansen, Bachirou, Lewicki, Rieks; Rosenborg, Antonsson
Chelsea lineup:
Caballero; Zappacosta, Cahill, Christensen, Emerson; Kovacic, Ampadu, Loftus-Cheek; Hudson-Odoi, Giroud, Willian
Head To Head
This will be the first competitive encounter between Malmo and Chelsea, though both sides have experience of facing teams from their opponent’s country.Malmo have lost four of their five matches against English opposition in all competitions, the exception being a 2-1 home win against Nottingham Forest in the first round of the 1995-96 UEFA Cup.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have lost none of their previous four encounters against Swedish sides, though their only two previous-such away games ended goalless.