The UEFA Champions League Round of 16 has arrived as Chelsea will travel to France to take on PSG on Wednesday.
PSG disposed of Monaco in the playoff round to advance, while Chelsea automatically qualified for this stage of the tournament after finishing sixth in the League Phase.
PSG are -105 favorites on the moneyline, while a draw is available at +275. Fancy a Chelsea upset? The Blues are +270 on the moneyline on DraftKings Sportsbook.
PSG vs. Chelsea Prediction, Pick
There is no chance that I am not backing the defending champions in their own backyard. PSG were in this exact same position a year ago. The team wasn’t playing their best until the Round of 16, and that’s when they turned it up a gear and went on to win their first Champions League trophy. They knocked out three English sides along the way: Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal.
I’m not predicting them to go all the way once again, but I do think they will get past Chelsea.
Paris have lost one of their five home games so far in this season’s competition, and that was to Bayern Munich, one of the best teams in the tournament. On the flip side, Chelsea have been vulnerable on the road, winning only one of their four away games.
These teams last met in the final of the Club World Cup last summer, and it was a surprise 3-0 Chelsea win that day. This game will be much different, however, as the Parc des Princes is one of the hardest places to go in Europe at the moment. Chelsea have been decent under Liam Rosenior, up until the moment when they face an elite side. Rosenior has only lost three games as the Chelsea boss, and all three of those were against Arsenal. PSG will present a similar challenge on Wednesday.
Despite a poor season by their standards, PSG are still top of the French league, and are the favorites to advance to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. If they can up their game a notch as they did around this time last season, it could be another fruitful campaign come May.
