The fourth fixture of Chelsea’s Europa League campaign takes place in Belarus tonight with Chelsea taking on BATE Borisov.
A win tonight will seal Chelsea’s place in the next stages of the competition, a competition they won back in 2013 when a late goal from Branislav Ivanovic saw Chelsea beat Benfica.
In the corresponding fixture, Chelsea emerged the victors, 3-1, at Stamford Bridge, similar result tonight would be welcomed by the loyal band of supporters that have made the trek east.
Whilst I may, in previous articles, have derided the competition for the presence of little-known teams, perhaps I should redress the balance by adding that, come the conclusion of the Champions’ League group stages, it should get more intriguing with those teams that finished third in their groups dropping into the competition, we could even be playing Tottenham Hotspur!
With the 17:55 (UK time) kick-off looming large, we are now able to bring you the team-sheets for you to mull over.
Starting with our hosts, BATE Borisov:
Наш состав на #БАТЭЧелси pic.twitter.com/Em8eqLwfAz
— FC BATE Borisov (@FCBATE) November 8, 2018
Continuing with Chelsea:
The team news is in! There are seven changes from Sunday's win…#BATEvCFC pic.twitter.com/Ezt1vjIgNR
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 8, 2018
Up the Chels!