Betting Update; Chelsea v Olympiakos with the bookmakers making Chelsea their 2/7 favourites

Added: (Wed Mar 05 2008)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Avram Grant has come under fire from certain quarters in the wake of his sides Carling Cup Final defeat, but he can take Chelsea one step closer to the biggest prize of all on Wednesday.

Media rumours of Frank Rijkaard expressing an interest in the Stamford Bridge hotseat and Roman Abramovich being happy with Grant “for now” do not do justice to the Israeli’s excellent resume since taking over from Jose Mourinho. Until Sunday, Chelsea hadn’t lost in any competition since going down 1-0 at league leaders Arsenal way back in December. Their defence has been its usual miserly self, only shipping 17 in the League and haven’t conceded in their last 5 Champions League matches.

And of course there is fortress Stamford Bridge – they STILL haven’t lost at home in the league for almost 4 calendar years and counting.

It’s no wonder, then, that the Blues are 1/4 in places to win in 90 minutes and an eye-watering 1/7 to qualify. However, unlike previous seasons, Olympiakos aren’t going abroad just to sightsee. They finally won their first away Champions League game in the group stages, a highly impressive 3-1 win at Bundesliga 2nd placed Werder Bremen.

They’ve also won at the Stadio Olimpico against Lazio and managed 7 goals in their 3 away group stage games: not bad considering they notched twice at Real Madrid as well.

But it takes something special to beat Chelsea in Europe nowadays; 3 semi-finals in 4 years proves their pedigree and Grant has no fresh injuries to worry about.

Therefore, one cant see past Chelsea progression: so where does the value lie?

Well, they are the masters of just doing enough in games: they’ve only won 2 games by more than 2 goals this season in the major competitions.

Therefore, Party Poker’s 6/1 on 1-0 Chelsea and 5/1 on 2-0 Chelsea are both backable.

Recommended Bets - 1pt - Chelsea 1-0
Recommended Bets - 1pt - Chelsea 2-0

• All prices correct at time of writing.

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