Chelsea are aiming to make it into the UEFA Conference League for the first time, but first they need to win this play-off. We look ahead to the first leg at Stamford Bridge with our Chelsea vs Servette prediction and preview.
Chelsea vs Servette Stats: Key Insights
- The Opta supercomputer predicts Chelsea should comfortably win this game versus Servette, with the Blues victorious in 79.1% of simulations ahead of kick-off.
- Chelsea have lost their last two games against Swiss opposition in Europe, losing twice to Basel in the 2013-14 Champions League.
- This will be Servette’s first competitive match against English opponents since 1974, when they played Derby County in the UEFA Cup.
Chelsea and Servette meet on Thursday evening at Stamford Bridge in the UEFA Conference League play-off, with two legs of this tie deciding which side will take a place in the competition proper in 2024-25.
Chelsea are looking to play European football again after a break in 2023-24, when they failed to qualify for Europe following a 12th-place finish in the Premier League in 2022-23.
The London club would have qualified for the UEFA Europa League group stage had Manchester United not won the 2024 FA Cup final against Man City, with Chelsea’s sixth-place finish in the Premier League eventually not proving enough to make the competition and bumping them down to Europe’s third-tier continental cup for 2024-25.
Enzo Maresca’s side head into the match off the back of a weekend defeat to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City. Chelsea matched their opponents for long periods of the match but were undone by a goal in each half. Their starting XI didn’t feature a single player over the age of 26 and its average age of 23 years and 180 days was the second-youngest ever fielded by a team on the opening weekend of the Premier League.
Of course, with a squad as bloated and overflowing as Chelsea’s, some big names were missing from the matchday squad on Sunday despite no reported injuries, such as Ben Chilwell, Axel Disasi, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Carney Chukwuemeka, Conor Gallagher and Raheem Sterling.
While Gallagher’s absence was expected, with the England midfielder since completing a move to Atlético Madrid, Sterling’s exclusion came as more of a surprise. The former Liverpool and Man City forward then released a statement via his representatives to express their shock at him being left out and saying that they wanted “clarity” on his role at the club. While Sterling’s time at the club seems to be coming to an end, this match could be an ideal opportunity for others to come back into the fold and allow them to show what they can offer Chelsea this season.
Sunday’s match against City saw Maresca play captain Enzo Fernández in a more advanced midfield role, with Christopher Nkunku and Cole Palmer either side of him and Nicolas Jackson as the striker. Jackson had a goal disallowed for offside and also had Chelsea’s best chance of the game but couldn’t add to his tally of 17 goals in 44 previous appearances for the club. It’s likely that the Senegalese striker will be preferred in attack again on Thursday night, however.
Thomas Häberli was named as Servette manager back in June and began life at the club well, winning his first three Swiss Super League games as boss. However, back-to-back league losses against Lugano and Basel – a 6-0 defeat – have come alongside a Europa League qualification disappointment against Portuguese side Braga, meaning this tie will be Servette’s last chance of European football in 2024-25.
They played in the Conference League last season after dropping out of the Europa League group stage and winning a play-off tie against Ludogorets Razgrad. They were knocked out in the round of 16 to Czech side Viktoria Plzen, however.
Servette will hope to use fellow Swiss side Basel as inspiration in this tie, as they defeated Chelsea both home (1-0) and away (2-1) in the 2013-14 UEFA Champions League – the last time the English club played Swiss opposition in Europe.
Chelsea vs Servette Prediction
Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to defeat Servette at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night. The Opta supercomputer is giving them a 79.1% chance of winning the first leg of this Conference League tie, with the Swiss side winning just 7.7% of pre-match simulations.
A draw would be a brilliant result for Servette to take back to Switzerland for the second leg, and the Opta supercomputer saw this result occur in 13.2% of its 10,000 pre-game sims.
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