Astana vs. Chelsea, UEFA Conference League: Preview, team news, how to watch
Today at 12:24 AM
Penultimate league stage match
Our penultimate match in the "league phase" of our first, and hopefully only ever UEFA Conference League campaign sees us travel to the farthest reaches of what UEFA define as "Europe", all the way to eastern regions of Kazakhstan, near the Chinese border.
It's an 8-hour flight, "not a normal time" to travel for a game in the middle of a season, as Enzo Maresca put it, but thankfully there isn't too much riding on this game other than keeping our perfect record going. (Do note the very early kick-off time as well.)
Chelsea are one of only two teams with four wins from four so far, and that just about guarantees us a top-eight place and thus a place in the Round of 16. And even if we were to lose our last two games, this one and the one against Shamrock Rovers next week, we would still qualify for the knockout rounds (just with one extra knockout round to play).
But hey, let's play ball!
Date / Time: Thursday, December 12, 2024, 15.30 GMT; 10:30am EST; 9pm IST
Venue: Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan (Astana's home stadium in Astana is undergoing renovations at the moment, so we're playing four hours away in Almaty, "The Big Apple")
Referee: Sven Jablonski (on pitch); Pascal Müller (VAR)
Forecast: Bone-chilling cold, 10 degrees (C) below freezing
On TV: TNT Sports 2 (UK); none (USA); Sony TEN 2 (India); SuperSport MaXimo 1 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: discovery+ (UK); Paramount+ (USA); Sony LIV (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Astana team news: Astana were established only in 2009, but they are well funded and (usually) play in the capital, so they've quickly become the dominant power in the Kazakh Premier League, winning it seven times since 2014.
They finished second last season, which got them into the qualifying rounds of this competition, where they eliminated Milsami Orhei of Moldova, Corvinul Hunedoara of Romania, and SK Brann of Norway to get into the league phase. So far, they have just four points from the first four games, but they remain in the hunt for finishing among the top 24. The four points have come from their two home games, including a 1-1 draw against Vitória de Guimarães last time out. The excellently named Charles Geoffrey leads the team in scoring.
Astana's league season actually ended last month (they finished second again); since then, they've won the League Cup and played the aforementioned match against Vitória. So they're well rested. Or already on holiday. Either way, they're expecting a party, a celebration of football. Gotta keep moving to keep the blood flowing!
"December 12 is a big holiday for Kazakhstani fans [and] fans from all over the republic and neighboring countries will come to the match."
"[Although] more than a month has passed since the end of the championship, and two weeks have passed since our last match [...] we believe that Astana will play a worthy game against Chelsea and delight the fans with a beautiful game."
-Sayan Khamitzhanov, Astana chairman; source: FC Astana via Google Translate
Chelsea team news: The Blues have taken an absolute skeleton crew to Almaty, with just eight first-team players in the squad of 20, which also includes a handful of Academy players without a single senior appearance. They certainly won't be getting this kind of test in youth football!
Among those not traveling for more than just squad-rotation and -selection reasons are João Félix and Mykhailo Mudryk, who are reportedly dealing with injury and illness (still), respectively. Reece James and Wesley Fofana remain out as well, while Roméo Lavia had a scare in the last game, getting withdrawn at half — thankfully, that appears to have been precautionary only.
The squad of 20 are:
GOALKEEPERS: Jörgensen, Bergström, Merrick
DEFENDERS: Disasi, Tosin, Veiga, Acheampong, Murray-Campbell, Olise, Wilson
MIDFIELDERS: Chukwuemeka, Dewsbury-Hall, Dyer, Rak-Sakyi, Vale
FORWARDS: Neto, Ampah, George, Guiu, Mheuka
Previously: We've won five in a row in all competitions, and have gone seven unbeaten, scoring. We're averaging over 4 goals per game in this league phase; let's keep that going!
