Chelsea vs. Celtic, Preseason friendly: Preview, team news, how to watch
07/27/2024 02:47 AM
Second preseason match
Chelsea's second match of preseason will see us take on Scottish Premier League champions Celtic at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. I spent four years of my life living in the State of Indiana during university, and the summers were just about the worst. Good luck to us!
With the level of the opposition going up, we will be looking for a bit better execution from the boys than against Wrexham. Head coach Enzo Maresca said after that game that he already saw some signs that his ideas were starting to take hold among the squad. He'll surely be looking for further evidence of that.
Date / Time: Saturday, July 27, 4pm EDT; 21.00 BST; 1:30am IST (next day)
Venue: Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame, IN, USA
Forecast: Surprisingly, not too bad; hot but not too humid or unbearable
On TV: ESPN Deportes (USA); none (UK); elsewhere
Streaming: ESPN+ (USA); Chelsea TV (int'l pay-per-view)
Chelsea team news: 21 of the 28 players who traveled featured in our first game. Those who missed out included two of the four goalkeepers plus the quartet of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Nicolas Jackson, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Axel Disasi — all of whom are dealing with some minor niggles. They all could be available for selection for this one, in addition to Moisés Caicedo, who joined the tour over the weekend as well.
The 90 minutes against Wrexham were far from impressive, but young striker Marc Guiu got himself noticed with some tireless running and both Reece James and Roméo Lavia had decent shifts in central midfield during our more coherent first-half performance. Let's build on that.
Celtic team news: Ex-Chelsea youth coach Brendan Rodgers returned to Celtic last summer after four years at Leicester City, and wasted no time in continuing The Bhoys' dominance of Scottish football, winning their third consecutive title and 13th in the last 14 years.
This will be their fifth and final preseason match, with the season proper starting next weekend already. They beat Manchester City, 4-3 midweek, adding to victories against DC United and Queen's Park, and a drawn against Ayr United.
Previously: Somewhat surprisingly, we've never played Celtic in a competitive match, but we did play them in a couple friendlies about 20 years ago: a 1-1 draw at the Bridge in 2006 and a 4-2 win in Seattle in 2004.
