Chelsea Faces Real Madrid in Final Pre-Season Match in the USA

Chelsea is gearing up to wrap up their busy pre-season tour of the USA with a match against the European champions, Real Madrid. The game is set for today, August 6, 2024, at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This marks the end of a 17-day tour that has taken the team across five cities. Head coach Enzo Maresca mentioned that the busy schedule hasn’t left much time for proper training, which is a concern as they approach the new season.

With five matches played in a short span, Enzo noted, “In this moment, the ideal situation would be to prepare for the games but we have been without the preparation.” He emphasized that the real pre-season training has been the two weeks spent at Cobham, the club’s training ground.

Today’s match against Real Madrid will begin at 7 PM local time, which also broadcasts on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes in the USA. Chelsea fans can follow the action live on the official website and app with minute-by-minute updates and video highlights.

However, Chelsea won’t have some players like Axel Disasi and Nicolas Jackson available for the match, as they are still recovering from injuries. The rest of the squad has been rotating out for offdays to ensure no one gets overworked.

On the other side, Real Madrid is also in a peculiar pre-season as this is their last friendly before diving into competitive matches. Under the management of Carlo Ancelotti, they are focusing on getting players back into shape rather than on the match results.

Interestingly, Real Madrid has lost both of their previous pre-season games, and they too have several key players missing, including Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham. Ancelotti remarked, “The result is not as important for us as getting the players into good form.”

This match serves as a great opportunity for both teams to finalize their preparations before the new season kicks off.