AC Milan will be travelling to Stamford Bridge to take on Graham Potter’s Chelsea in their Group E matchup, which will also see Fikayo Tomori and Olivier Giroud face up against their former side, in what is the feature match for Wednesday’s matchday 3. While defending champions Real Madrid will be opening their doors to Shaktar Donetsk, Lionel Messi’s PSG take on Benfica and Sevilla will be testing the waters of Borussia Dortmund.
Chelsea head into this tie looking for their first 3 points in this season’s edition of the Champions League, after suffering defeat in their opening game and drawing the following fixture against RB Salzburg and are currently 4th in the group with only 1 point. While AC Milan top the standings of Group E with 4 points from their 2 games so far. Chelsea’s season has been an up-and-down rollercoaster with many transitions to the team, the changing in management from Thomas Tuchel to Graham Potter, resulting in the new head coach requiring some time and patience to asses his inherited squad properly. However they can be confident of their chances as Milan will be missing a few key players through injuries, including goalkeeper Mike Maignan and fullback Theo Hernandez.
The 2 teams have only ever faced each other twice in the Champions League and on both occasions the matches yielded no direct winner, both times ending in draws. AC Milan are the 2nd most successful club in the competition with their 7 Champions League titles, only behind Real Madrid who are the most successful club with 14 Champions League titles. Chelsea have recently added their 2nd Champions League title in the cabinet after they beat Manchester City 1-0 in the 2020/21 final. Milan are 5th in Serie A with 17 points, 3 points off the pace of leaders Napoli. Chelsea on the other hand are also sitting 5th in the Premier League but are 8 points behind table toppers Arsenal (21 points) and will be looking to turn their season around at the halfway point of the Champions League campaign.
Lionel Messi is also in action tonight when his PSG side will be banking on the attacking prowess provided by himself & teammates Kylian Mbappe & Neymar. Mbappe is PSG’s top scorer in he competition with 3 goals from 2 games, while Messi only has 1 goal and 1 assist in the competition so far, and they should overpower Benfica. While the defending champions Real Madrid face Shaktar Donetsk in their Group F encounter in a match where they’re rightly favourites, while Haaland’s Manchester City face Copenhagen tonight and they should be too much for them. Another match sure to be a cracker is Sevilla’s clash against Borussia Dortmund in a close contest but Dortmund should have the right amount of quality to overcome Sevilla’s test.
