Heidenheim vs Chelsea Predictions

• Heidenheim and Chelsea have both won three out of three in the Conference League
• Heidenheim are known to rise to the big occasion, beating Bayern Munich 3-2 at home last season
• Chelsea have been playing their second-string players in this competition

Blues’ 100% record could go in Heidenheim

Chelsea face a difficult test against away to Heidenheim as two clubs with perfect League phase records clash in the Europa Conference League on Thursday evening.

Enzo Maresca has been playing second-choice players in the cup competitions this season with mixed results. Easy wins over Gent, Panathinaikos and Noah mean the Blues are unlikely to be made to regret their decision not to register Cole Palmer for this competition.

Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku and Mykhailo Mudryk have been Maresca’s main men in Europe but they all failed to fire when Chelsea lost 2-0 at Newcastle in the Carabao Cup. The Blues’ midfield was overrun that evening and there were similar problems earlier this season when the stiffs lost 2-1 to Servette in Geneva.

Bundesliga club bullied Bayer Leverkusen

Heidenheim’s overall form is not going to scare Chelsea, but they should be aware that the club from a small town in the south of Germany have a history of raising their game on the big occasion.

They memorably completed their fairytale journey from the fifth tier to the Bundesliga with two stoppage-time goals that enabled them to jump from third to first on the final day of the 2022-23 campaign. And they came from two goals down to beat Bayern Munich 3-2 last season, which pretty much skewered Harry Kane’s chances of his first major silverware.

Frank Schmidt’s men bullied Bayer Leverkusen for half an hour at the weekend, going 2-0 up before the Bundesliga champions roared back to win 5-2 at home.  Scoring multiple goals has been a theme of their European campaign too and they can be backed at an attractive price to put at least two goals past a Chelsea defence that has shipped multiple goals against Servette, Gent and Newcastle.