Real Betis and Chelsea will contest this season’s Europa Conference League final at the Tarczynski Arena in Poland on Wednesday night.
Chelsea were the bookmakers’ overwhelming favourites to win the competition before a ball was kicked and they are now just one win away from getting their hands on the trophy.
Enzo Maresca’s men have plotted their path to the final with minimum fuss, winning 11 of their 12 matches thus far.
The Blues will come into this clash in high spirits after securing a place in next season’s Champions League with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday, in a game that brought up my City Ground Bet Builder.
As for Real Betis, they squeezed past Fiorentina at the semi-final stage with a 4-3 aggregate success as they took another step towards securing a maiden European trophy.
Irrespective of what happens on Wednesday night, Manuel Pellegrini’s men will be playing Europa League football next season after finishing 6th in this season’s La Liga standings.
How the bookies view it: Blue is the colour on the trophy
Chelsea are odds-on 4/5 favourites on Boylesports to win Wednesday night’s Europa Conference League final without the need for extra-time or penalty kicks.
Real Betis are big underdogs at 7/2 on Boylesports, while the 90 minute draw is also deemed unlikely at 12/5 with the same firm.
Head to head: History book dormant
Chelsea and Real Betis will do battle for the first time since crossing paths way back in 2006 in the now-defunct group stage of the Champions League. Both sides won their respective home games, each keeping a clean sheet in the process.
Players to watch: Joy for Jackson?
With 12 goals and five assists across his 30 appearances in all competitions this season, Nicolas Jackson looks nicely priced to register another goal involvement on Wednesday night at 11/10 on Bet 365.
Manchester United loanee Antony has averaged 1.59 shots on target per game for Real Betis in this season’s Europa Conference League, making him an eye catching option to hit the target once or more here at 5/6 with William Hill.
Predicted line-ups
Real Betis will be unable to call upon the services of Chimy Avila, Diego Llorente, Hector Bellerin and Marc Roca, while there are also doubts surrounding Fran Vieites, Giovani Lo Celso and Youssouf Sabaly.
After serving a suspension on Sunday, the aforementioned Nicolas Jackson is expected to be restored to the Chelsea starting XI on Wednesday night, however Blues boss Maresca will be without injured defender Wesley Fofana.
Real Betis: Adrian; Ruibal, Bartra, Natan, Rodriguez; Cardoso, Fornals; Antony, Isco, Ezzalzouli; Bakambu
Chelsea: Sanchez; James, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Caicedo; Madueke, Palmer, Neto; Jackson
Anything else catch the eye?
The 4/5 on Boylesports about both teams to get on the scoresheet on Wednesday night looks worthy of support.
BTTS would have been a winning selection in a league-high 27 of Real Betis’ 38 La Liga matches this season, as well as each of their last three continental contests.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have seen each team oblige in five of their last eight matches in this season’s Europa Conference League.
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