Chelsea vs Benfica preview: The Blues aiming to secure first UCL win as Jose Mourinho returns back to the Bridge

Chelsea host Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday night as Jose Mourinho returns back to Stamford Bridge.

The Blues suffered a 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich last time out on the return to Europe’s top table.

Enzo Maresca’s men also fell to a 3-1 home defeat to Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday and will hope to get back to winning ways against Mourinho’s Benfica.

The Eagles secured a 2-1 home victory over Gil Vicente on Friday in the Special One’s third game back at the club.

Match preview

Chelsea have won all four of our previous competitive meetings with Benfica, the most recent being the FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final in June.

Benfica have won four of their last five away games in the Champions League group stage/league stage (one defeat), including the last two.

They have kept four clean sheets in their last five away European games.

José Mourinho has won just four of his 14 matches against former club Chelsea.

The 62-year-old has faced his former employers on 14 occasions across all competitions but has emerged victorious in only four of those games (D3 L7). Indeed, Mourinho has failed to triumph in any of the previous seven and last came out on the winning side in February 2018 when his Manchester United team were 2-1 winners over Chelsea in the Premier League.

That Bayern setback means Chelsea are on their longest-ever losing streak in the competition (three games), though they have not lost a home game in the group/league phase of the Champions League since September 2019 (a 1-0 defeat to Valencia), picking up seven wins and four draws since then.

The Eagles are without a win in eight matches against English teams (three draws, five defeats) since defeating Spurs in the 2013/14 Europa League Round of 16.

They are unbeaten on their travels this season in all competitions (five wins, one draw).

Team news

Chelsea

The hosts will be without talisman Cole Palmer, scorer of their only goal against Bayern, due to a groin issue.

Long-term absentees Dario Essugo, Levi Colwill and Liam Delap miss out.

Wesley Fofana and Tosin Adarabioyo are unavailable for the Blues due to concussion and calf injury, respectively.

Moises Caicedo, Andrey Santos and Joao Pedro all picked up knocks during Saturday’s defeat to the Seagulls, and Maresca confirmed the trio will be reviewed, with a training session which took place at Cobham earlier today.

Benfica

Bruma is nursing an Achilles tendon issue, while Manu Silva and Alexander Bah are both recovering from rupturing their anterior cruciate ligaments, so they all miss the trip to London.

Predicted line-ups

Chelsea: Robert Sánchez, Malo Gusto, Josh Acheampong, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella, Moisés Caicedo, Andrey Santos, Enzo Fernández, Estêvão, Pedro Neto, João Pedro.

Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Amar Dedic, António Silva, Nicolás Otamendi, Samuel Dahl, Richard Ríos, Enzo Barrenechea, Fredrik Aursnes, Heorhii Sudakov, Andreas Schjelderup, Vangelis Pavlidis.