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Chelsea put themselves on the radar of the football world by regularly winning secondary competitions like the League Cup, winning it three times between 1998 and 2007 and five times overall in their history, most recently in 2015. They would love to add to that total — but before they can do that, they need to get through the early rounds, and that means beating Nottingham Forest in the third round.
Forest are no stranger to League Cup success themselves, having won it four times in their history, though their last triumph came way back in 1990. Their history has been rather more tumultuous in recent years, sliding up and down in England’s league structure before landing in their current place in the Championship, where they currently sit mid-table eight games into the season. They’re also in the first year of a new ownership reign, after Greek businessman Evangelos Marinakis bought the club from the Al-Hasawi family that bought Nottingham Forest in 2012.
One thing that’s for sure is that Forest would love to spoil Chelsea’s run to a sixth League Cup title, but in all blunt honesty that just doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Even a heavily rotated Chelsea side like we can expect to see in this game is better than Forest is at full strength, and you can always be sure that Antonio Conte is going to have his team motivated and prepared for this game.
Match info, plus how to watch on TV and stream
Match Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, 7:45 p.m. local
Venue: Stamford Bridge, London, England
Online: ESPN3, WatchESPN (U.S.)
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Listings for more countries can be found at LiveSoccerTV.