Chelsea departed today for their pre-season tour of Asia with virtually a full strength squad.
New signings Deco and Bosingwa have travelled, but Didier Drogba and Claudio Pizarro both miss out because of injury. Michael Ballack will link up with the squad later on in the tour after being given an extended rest due to his participation in Euro 2008.
Chelsea's first game will be against Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday, followed by a match with Chengdu Blades on July 26th. The tour will finish in Kuala Lumpur against a Malaysian Select XI on July 29th.
Today's Must Reads
Chelsea boss Luiz Scolari is looking forward to the games and the opportunity to prepare the squad for the season ahead. "I am very much looking forward to our visit and games in China," he said.
"This will be the first time I have taken a team to play there and it will be my first match in charge of the Chelsea squad. I know the Chinese fans are passionate about the game and we are excited about playing in front of them against some strong opposition."
After the matches in the Far East, Chelsea will compete in the Railways Cup in Moscow against Lokomotiv Moscow and then either AC Milan or Sevilla.
comments (0) write a comment »
write a new comment
This article has no comments.