Chelsea play away in one of the Champions League’s most far-flung corners today with the near-5,000-mile round trip to take on Qarabag in Azerbaijan.
Enzo Maresca’s men will be aiming for a third-successive win in Europe’s elite competition, after bouncing back from an opening loss at Bayern Munich with home wins over Benfica and Ajax.
The London side are 13th in the Champions League standings tied on six points with 15th-placed Qarabag.
Victory today would likely propel Chelsea into the top eight positions, from which teams progress directly to the last 16, although there is still a long way to go (today is Chelsea’s fourth of eight league phase matches).
It is the third time in eight years that the Stamford Bridge club have had to make the long trek to the Azerbaijani capital. They beat Qarabag 4-0 in the group stage of the 2017 Champions League before returning 18 months later for the Europa League final, beating Arsenal 4-1.
The Chelsea players will be kept on UK time whilst in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to mitigate the effects of the four-hour time difference ahead of Saturday’s home match with Wolves.
“For sure, we need to rotate some of the players because I think we come back in London at 6am [GMT] on Friday and then we have a game on Saturday [at 8pm],” said Maresca. “A demanding schedule but we will try to adapt and do our best.
“It is an important game. It can give us three wins in a row in Champions League, nine points, so very important.”
After beating Shelbourne (Ireland), Shkendija (Macedonia) and Ferencváros (Hungary) to qualify for the league phase, Qarabag won away at Benfica and home against Copenhagen before losing at Athletic Bilbao, despite taking at early lead in the Basque Country.
“It’ll be a tough game for sure, for different reasons, they are a very good and intense team,” said Maresca, who has been impressed by Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov, who has led the club to 11 Azerbaijan Premier League titles since taking charge in 2008. “It’s unbelievable, 17 years with the same club, amazing,” the Chelsea manager said.
Kick-off is at 5.45pm, team news to follow shortly.
