Zenit Saint Petersburg v Chelsea live stream, BT Sport, Wednesday 8 December, 5.45pm GMT
Chelsea will be looking to end the Champions League group phase on a high by beating Zenit Saint Petersburg on Wednesday.
The Blues are already safely through to the round of 16, but first place in Group H is still up for grabs. Chelsea currently occupy top spot thanks to their superior head-to-head record over Juventus, who lost 4-0 at Stamford Bridge last month. A win in Russia would therefore be enough for Chelsea to be crowned group winners, but a draw or defeat would open the door to the Bianconeri.
Finishing top is usually advantageous since it guarantees a last-16 tie against a runner-up. Yet there are plenty of examples in the past of group winners being paired with one of the favourites to win the competition in the first knockout round. Still, finishing top would probably keep Chelsea apart from Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and a thrilling Ajax side in the round of 16, so it is a prize worth fighting for.
Thomas Tuchel will also be keen for a response after his team were beaten 3-2 by West Ham at the weekend. That was by no means a disastrous result and no one should be too down on Chelsea after only their second league defeat of the campaign, but their performance levels have dipped a little of late and Tuchel will hope to see a reaction.
The German is likely to ring the changes with the hectic festive period on the horizon. Ben Chilwell, Mateo Kovacic, Trevoh Chalobah and N'Golo Kante will all miss out through injury, while Kai Havertz and Marcos Alonso will need to be assessed.
Zenit have little to play for on Wednesday: they have already secured third place in the group and will therefore drop into the Europa League after Christmas. They only lost 1-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and will look to pose a similarly stern test on their own patch.
Kick-off is at 5.45pm GMT and the game is being shown live on BT Sport 3 in the UK.
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If you’re on holiday or just simply out of the country, your domestic on-demand services won’t work – the broadcaster knows exactly where you are from your IP address. Your access to the game will be automatically blocked, which is annoying if you’ve paid a subscription fee and don't want to use an illegal stream that decides to buffer at the worst possible moment. And that's where we recommend ExpressVPN (more on which below).
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