In his first year in London, Maresca took fourth place in the Premier League and won both the Conference League and the Club World Cup. This season hasn’t been without difficulties, but it was far from disastrous. Still, his dismissal at New Year’s came as a huge surprise. His successor, the largely inexperienced Rosenior, is only just starting out at his new post. Under Rosenior, Chelsea have already lost to Arsenal in the League Cup. Their opponent, Pafos, has a very short history, but won their first championship title last spring. Now, they are fighting to retain it against Omonia and AEK.
In the Champions League, the English side began with a loss to Bayern. But after that, they claimed victories over Benfica, Ajax, and even Barcelona—by 3-0! However, before thrashing the Catalans, they dropped points against Qarabag, finishing 2-2. In December, they lost to Atalanta.
The debutant from the Mediterranean island began their campaign back in mid-summer, making it through the qualifiers against Maccabi Tel Aviv, Dynamo Kyiv, and Crvena Zvezda. In the main round, they have looked quite solid: losing only to Bayern and Juventus. They drew with Olympiacos, Kairat, and even Monaco, and also managed to beat a struggling Villarreal!
Chelsea have won one of their last three matches in the league
The team scores an average of 2.17 goals and concedes 1.33
Pafos have lost only two out of twelve matches
The club averages one goal scored and one conceded per match.
Chelsea (probable lineup): Sanchez – Cucurella, Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Gusto – Caicedo, Santos, Neto, Fernandez, Palmer – Delap
Pafos (probable lineup): Papadoudis – Mimovic, Joao Correia, Luckassen, David Luiz – Pepe Rodrigues, Sunjic, Dragomir – Orsic, Jaja, Dimata.
