Chelsea and Celtic lock horns in a preseason friendly at an iconic venue, as a different type of football comes to Notre Dame Stadium this Saturday.
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Enzo Maresca watched his Chelsea side draw 2-2 against third-tier Wrexham on Wednesday in Santa Clara, California in an ill-tempered encounter. Maresca defended Chelsea’s playing style after his first game in charge of the Blues, which saw his unique possession-based playing style come straight to the fore after his summer arrival from Leicester City.
Celtic beat Manchester City 4-3 in a thrilling contest at the University of North Carolina on Tuesday, as Brendan Rodgers’ side are much further along in their preseason preparations as the 2024-25 domestic season in Scotland starts much earlier than elsewhere in Europe.
How to watch Chelsea vs Celtic live, stream link and start time
Kick off: 4pm ET, Saturday (July 27)
Stadium: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana
TV channel: ABC
Online: ESPN+
Chelsea focus, team news
Chelsea fought back to draw against Wrexham as Christopher Nkunku had given them the lead, then Lesley Ugochukwu equalized late on. Chelsea started that game in a back three with Robert Sanchez in goal and Maresca asked his side to play out from the back and just two weeks into preseason you can already see the Italian coach has totally changed Chelsea’s style of play. Reece James, Noni Madueke, Romeo Lavia, Tosin, Levi Colwill and Badiashille all started, with Ben Chilwell, Malo Gusto, Raheem Sterling, Armando Broja and Wesley Fofana all coming off the bench. With the likes of Cole Palmer, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher yet to link up with the Chelsea squad for preseason, all eyes are on Maresca at Chelsea as an intriguing summer lies ahead. New signing Renato Veiga didn’t feature against Wrexham, neither did Nicolas Jackson or another new summer signing Kieran Dewsbury-Hall so that trio could feature but goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic is out injured and didn’t travel to the States. Another new signing, Marc Guiu, did start up front and is an interesting player to keep an eye on.
Celtic focus, team news
Celtic looked really good in attack against Man City as Nicholas Kuhn (two) and Kyogo Furuhashi were both on the scoresheet. Rodgers has the core of his first team back in full flow with McGregor, O’Riley (who has been linked with a summer move to the Premier League) and Hatate in midfield. New starting goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel made his debut for Celtic and the reigning Scottish champions are looking in good shape as they prepare to kick off their domestic season on August 4. USMNT center back Cameron Carter-Vickers has yet to feature for Celtic during their preseason tour.
Chelsea vs Celtic prediction
It seems like Chelsea still have so much depth and talent despite a lot of their top players yet to return from their summer break. Expect the likes of Sterling, Nkunku and Madueke to have plenty of fun in this one. Chelsea 4-2 Celtic.
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