Chelsea Vs Bordeaux: Match Preview

We begin our journey towards Rome in the Champions League with a home match against Bordeaux, the French side.

After a win against City at the weekend, Blues spirits are high and Bordeaux might find it difficult to contain the quality Chelsea possess. Their main agenda will be damage limitation. Maybe they'll have a go at Chelsea on their own turf, but certainly not at Stamford Bridge.

It would be interesting to see how Scolari approaches today's game, considering that we play United this weekend.

Will he afford to rest key players like Lampard and Joe Cole, taking into account the fact that they have played three matches in a span of eight days?

Captain John Terry is suspended for the weekend, and I don't think FA will admit the refereeing error. Refereeing was terribly bad last weekend.

So Terry may be partnered by Alex, as Carvalho might be rested for today's game. We might also see people like Kalou and Ivanovic in action today. Ballack will make his return from injury today but may not play the entire 90 minutes, unless the situation demands it.

We may also see the young striker Franco Di Santo in action today.

This is Scolari's first match at the highest level of club football in Europe, though he had won the South American equivalent, the Copa Libertadores twice with Brazilian clubs.

Meanwhile Laurent Blanc's Bordeaux side is labelled "unpredictable" by many pundits. The Girondins, as they are called, are likely to flood the midfield and rely heavily on counter-attacks.

Blanc is the oldest player to score in the competition, a feat he performed when playing for Manchester United. Chelsea and Girondins de Bordeaux have never met in European competition.

In the other Group A game, Roma face the newcomers CFR 1907 Cluj of Romania, and are expected to come through without any loss of points.

Meanwhile the Blue fans are also keeping their fingers crossed over the Terry red card appeal, on which a decision will be made today. Mark Halsey was pathetic last Saturday as a referee and the chances are that he will remain so during the appeal:

Possible Starting Team:
Cech  
Ferreira, Terry, Alex, Bridge
Deco, Mikel, Lampard
J.Cole, Anelka, Malouda
Subs: Cudicini, Carvalho, A.Cole, Di Santo, Drogba, Ballack, Belletti, Kalou


Referee: Pieter Vink
Time : 0015 IST 
TV Timings: 0015 Zee Sports(IST), 17/09/08. 
Scoreline prediction: 4-0

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