Chelsea vs. Rennes: Expect cards in a tight encounter at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea host Rennes on Wednesday in the Champions League in a 8pm kick-off at Stamford Bridge.
As always I’ve got a nice looking bet builder to get stuck into!
Chelsea have won only one of their last eight home games in this competition, drawing five and losing two. Rennes, meanwhile, are competing in Europe’s elite tournament for the first time in the club’s history.
Chelsea have significantly improved defensively of late, keeping five consecutive clean sheets with former Rennes goalkeeper Edouard Mendy in goal.
All five of those matches have seen under five goals at either end, with Rennes’ last eight matches also seeing under five goals (with seven of those eight seeing under four).
It’s tough to envisage a goal fest, then, especially with Frank Lampard prioritising defensive solidity over attacking fluidity at present, so I’m happy to add Under 5 Goals as a solid starting point to a Bet Builder.
Despite their poor home form in this competition I do see Chelsea winning this, especially with the hugely talented teenager Eduardo Camavinga injured for the visitors, but I’ll play safe and back them to score Over 0 Goals in the Bet Builder instead.
Felix Zwayer officiates this one and the German has a high card rate in the Champions League, averaging 5.11 yellow cards per game in his 18 matches. He showed five or more cards in all of his matches last season, and only has shown fewer than three in just one of his 18 matches.
He has also shown both teams one or more card in 15 of his last 20 matches in all competitions, so I’m happy to add both teams to pick up a card as well as Over 2 Cards to the Bet Builder for total odds of evens (as pictured below):
In terms of individual players, former Blackburn and Sevilla midfielder Steven Nzonzi and Damien Da Silva have both picked up four yellow cards in eight Ligue 1 games this season and look well priced to be carded once more at 3/1 (bet365) and 4/1 (Unibet) respectively.
Da Silva was also carded in Rennes’ last CL match against Sevilla. The double pays 14/1 with bet365.
I did have my eye on other markets, with a Kurt Zouma shot on target appealing given he has had one in six of Chelsea’s eight matches in the Premier League and Champions League this season, but the best odds I could find was 9/5 (Betfair) which doesn’t overly appeal.
I also fancied backing Jorginho to score with Zwayer awarding eight penalties in his 18 CL matches, but again odds of 5/2 (Betfair) don’t massively appeal either.
Likewise the odds in the tackles market with SkyBet look on the skinny side to me, but if you are looking to back anyone then the players to look out for are probably Ngolo Kante, Reece James and Hamari Traore, who are all around the evens mark to land three or more.
