Leeds United V Chelsea Capital One Cup Betting Preview 

The last quarter final of the Capital One Cup takes place this Wednesday as Chelsea travel to Elland Road to face Leeds United. This certainly won’t be the easy cup tie Chelsea would of hoped for and the challenge is made even more difficult as they arrived back from playing in the Club World Cup in Japan only the day before. It will be interesting to see what sort of a side Benitez picks for this tie, if the Spaniard isn’t careful then this could be the second piece of silverware they have missed out on in the last week. Choose a free bet for this match here.

Leeds

Leeds will be full of confidence going into this game and will certainly fancy their chances against what is likely to either be a much changed Chelsea side or a fatigued first team. Leeds have won three games in a row at home and have a pretty good record in the Championship having won six out of their eleven games at home this season. Leeds are also the most in form side in the Championship having won four and lose just the one in their last five games. They are priced at 16/5 on William Hill to win this match and are 9/4 to qualify through to the next round. Leeds are always a tricky opponent to face in Cup matches and at a packed Elland Road there may well be an upset on the cards. Luciano Becchio is Leeds top goalscorer this season with an impressive twelve goals to his name. The Argentinian is at 13/2 to score first and 15/8 to score anytime on William Hill for this match. Leeds have a lot of things pointing in their favour for this game, however an experienced Chelsea team will certainly make it a very difficult task.

Chelsea

Chelsea have been very hit and miss under Benitez since he took charge, just when things were starting to look up for them they found themselves return from the Club World Cup runners up to Corinthians in what was a disappointing campaign. Despite the tournament not meaning a great deal to them they will still be frustrated that they weren’t able to win it and will go into this game against Leeds slightly aggrieved. Chelsea are 5/6 to win this tricky cup tie on William Hill and a Chelsea draw no bet is 1/3. Clearly the bookies are still making Chelsea quite heavy favourites and it will take a big performance from Leeds to prove everyone wrong. There are a host of players for Chelsea that if they start could well score, you would think Rafa will elect to field a strong side to secure qualification to the next round. But there are bound to be some very tired regulars that may be sitting this one out in preparation for the game against Aston Villa on Sunday. Juan Mata has been on form this season and is at 11/2 to score the first goal and 6/4 to score anytime on William Hill. There is a strong possibility this game could go to extra time so Chelsea to qualify at 1/3 is perhaps a safer bet then a Chelsea win in normal time.

Summary

The outcome of this game will be very dependent on the side Chelsea decide to put out on Wednesday. A weakened side will certainly motivate the Leeds players and give everyone the belief that they could knock the European champions out. It should be a close game that could quite easily go to extra time in order to be decided. Leeds or draw is at 10/11 whilst Chelsea or draw is 1/4 on Skybet, both of which could easily come in. Just the draw on William Hill is priced at 5/2 which could be likely as Leeds will know the longer the game goes on for the more likely they are of progressing. This game doesn’t really suggest there will be lots of goals and on Skybet many will be tempted with odds of 6/5 for under 2.5 goals. There is no doubt that this will be an extremely tight affair and depending on the Chelsea side chosen could be a potential cup upset. Chelsea to scrape the victory 1-0 is 8/1 on Bet365 and could well be a likely outcome.

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Written by Max Hodge

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