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Chelsea’s Europa League possibilities: Most and least desirable opponents

By The Pride of London Staff

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 07: Ethan Ampadu of Chelsea in action during the pre-season friendly match between Chelsea and Lyon at Stamford Bridge on August 7, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 07: Ethan Ampadu of Chelsea in action during the pre-season friendly match between Chelsea and Lyon at Stamford Bridge on August 7, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 07: Ethan Ampadu of Chelsea in action during the pre-season friendly match between Chelsea and Lyon at Stamford Bridge on August 7, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /

Chelsea learn their first three Europa League opponents on Friday. Here are our picks for the best and worst possible opponents for the Blues.

Deny it if you want, but Chelsea are in the Europa League. Their first set of Thursday night games will be handed down this week with the group stage draw. We take a look at a few possibilities for the most and least desirable teams in Chelsea’s group.

Most desirable opponents

Close to home and familiar faces (Travis Tyler)

Celtic, Celtic, and Celtic are the top three choices. First of all, who wouldn’t love a chance to play against a Brendan Rodgers team again? He has been in self imposed exile making the Scottish Premiership look silly in the process. It is time for Chelsea to bring him back down to earth again.

Alternatively, Rangers would do just fine. Just as close and it would give Steven Gerrard a chance to slip up. Other than those two, no side particularly stands out as a must draw so long as they are west of Germany.

Geography lessons! (Abhishek Pancholi)

Looking at the teams in pots 2, 3 and 4, there are quite a few minnows with unpronounceable names. Still, I would be agreeable to accepting one decent team alongside Chelsea and two teams that would be no more than cannon-fodder.

So, with that in mind, let’s go with a draw of Fenerbahce, FK Krasnodar and Videoton Fehervar or, as they are now known, MOL Vidi FC.

Reasons? Well, Fenerbahce purely for the downright hostile atmosphere you get in Turkish stadiums. They are a cauldron of hate for opposing teams and it would be nice to see this Chelsea team compete under such conditions. Krasnodar gives the Blues a trip to Roman Abramovich’s homeland and the last one is simply because I find the history of their name changes absolutely amazing.

All things in moderation, including moderation (George Perry)

The ideal opponent from Pot 2 is Celtic, for all matters distance and Brendan Rodgers. A close second, though, is Genk. They are the second-closest team to London, and they are the club from whom Chelsea bought Thibaut Courtois and Kevin de Bruyne. The two clubs have not met under any circumstances since de Bruyne’s sale so it could be a chance to catch up, talk about what a you-know-what Courtois turned out to be and for Chelsea to maybe spot the next de Bruyne with the hopes of getting it right this time around.

Pots 3 and 4 do not have any teams equally desirable on logistics or competition. Perhaps Malmo and Zurich are the best balancing act, but the lure of the Europa League are the exotic destinations (it’s certainly not the prestige of playing on Thursday). Malmo and Zurich are a bit staid, especially if the other team in the group is Genk.

Perhaps a long journey will impress on Maurizio Sarri the necessity of heavy rotation and playing the youth. He may think his Premier League XI could handle 90 minutes on Thursday in Slovakia or Norway. So maybe just to force his hand on Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ethan Ampadu and – why not – Danny Drinkwater, the Blues should set out for Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Ufa.

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