Al-Hilal vs Chelsea Predictions: Plenty of chances in this Club World Cup encounter

Chelsea begin their bid to become Club World Champions on Wednesday, as they look to emulate previous English sides to have achieved the feat. They’ve reached the final of this tournament once before, losing in the final to Corinthians in 2012.

The Club World Cup hosts sides who have won their continent's elite competitions, the AFC Champions League, CAF Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League, Copa Libertadores, OFC Champions League or UEFA Champions League. The host nation’s national league Champions also qualify for the tournament.

Chelsea will be looking to put their past experience behind them this week, with a strong 23-man squad being selected, with Edouard Mendy set to join them later in the tournament after his AFCON success. Thomas Tuchel hasn’t flown with the squad after his Covid-19 positive result, but may join his side as the week goes on.

They face an Al-Hilal side with a number of familiar faces. Matheus Pereira is the standout player in the squad, and has previous against Chelsea, scoring twice and assisting two goals in his life outing against The Blues last campaign. Odion Ighalo is another name known to those with English football knowledge, as is Andre Carillo, and the more continental of us may recognise names such as Moussa Marega. As ever we’ll look ahead to the game, and provide two tips for it.

First off, it’s hard to look past Chelsea to win the game. At odds of 1/4, they’re heavy favourites against the 11/1 priced Al-Hilal. There’s obvious differences in qualities between the teams, but the result and BTTS market is where we’re looking today. Both teams to score has landed in four of Al-Hilal’s last five games in all competitions, including their 6-1 win over Al-Jazira. 

BTTS has also landed in two of Chelsea’s last three games in all competitions, and their shaky win over Plymouth in the FA Cup is what makes me think this bet will land here. Although these games are important to the club’s, we often see the European sides take a much more relaxed approach to them, and that could mean chances for the Saudi club.

Ighalo is a man in form for Al-Hilal, having scored 14 goals in 20 games, including three in his last five. Ighalo has scored once against Chelsea before, for Watford, but has a poor record of one in six against the European Champions. However, his price compared to the Chelsea squad to score, and the fact that I think there’ll be chances in this game, gives me enough to believe he could bag here. With Matheus Pereira in great form in terms of assisting, there could be problems for Chelsea at the back, something which has been an occurrence in recent months for them. Good luck if you’re following any of these bets, and please remember to gamble responsibly.