Former Bayern Munich and Germany star Lothar Matthaus has acknowledged Chelsea’s status as world champions.
Matthaus’ old side Bayern take on Chelsea, who won the Club World Cup in July, in the Champions League this Wednesday.
Bayern’s director of sport Max Eberl believes Chelsea deserved to win the honour, which has made them world champions.
Matthaus, though, does not sound too worried about Enzo Maresca‘s team.
Lothar Matthaus predicts Bayern Munich to beat Chelsea
Opta’s supercomputer has backed Bayern to beat Chelsea, a prediction that Matthaus completely agrees with.
In his column for Sky Sport, the ex-midfielder said: “Their opening opponent, Chelsea, may be the Club World Champions, but I expect Bayern to win at home. They will have learned their lesson from last season’s Champions League, when they failed due to their poor conversion rate.
“In the 5-0 win against HSV on Saturday, Bayern slowed down after half an hour because they knew that the coming weeks would be physically demanding.”
Chelsea’s trip to the Allianz Arena will see them reunite with Nicolas Jackson, who left the Blues for Bayern at the end of the last transfer window.
Harry Kane has been speaking about Jackson, warning Chelsea that the two have already been working closely together in training.
With Liam Delap currently out injured, there will be some who wish that the club never let him go. But following the acquisitions of Delap and Joao Pedro, the Senegal international was keen to leave and link up with Vincent Kompany in Germany.
Nicolas Jackson already plotting Chelsea’s downfall
Having only left Chelsea at the start of this month, Jackson obviously knows the team inside out. Bayern are trying to take advantage of that, according to Eberl.
When Eberl spoke about how Jackson could help the German champions on Wednesday, he said: “I’m sure Vinni and the coaching staff will ask him. There are always certain processes that you might still see in the analysis.
“What signals do they have? What do these signals mean? I certainly believe the coaching staff is taking advantage of this.”
The best kind of help that the 24-year-old can provide, though, is practical support on the pitch. He is eligible to play despite being on loan, with loanees permitted to play against their parent club in UEFA competitions.
If the Blues defend the way they did against Brentford over the weekend, the former Villarreal man and Kane could end up having a field day.
Chelsea need to tighten up if they are to have any hope of securing a positive result.
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