OFFICIAL: Chelsea get tough Conference League draw as play-off round date fixed
Chelsea already knows who they will play against in the UEFA Conference League playoffs.
The Blues know they will play the loser of the match between Portugal’s SC Braga and Switzerland’s Servette FC in a two-leg tie to determine who advances to the competition proper after a draw that was so Byzantine that we can’t even begin to explain it.
That is very different from a few years ago, when we stormed into the Champions League group stages as the reigning champions.
A solid challenge for Enzo Maresca and his team
This is actually about as tough as the draw could have got for us. We weren’t able to play one of the seeded teams, and without doubt Braga were among the strongest sides we were able to draw. Servette aren’t terrible compared to some of the other sides that we could have draw, but we’re confident that the Portuguese side will beat them this week, leaving us to face the Swiss.
The first leg will be played at Stamford Bridge in just a couple of weeks, on the 22nd of August, and the return leg will be a week after that, on the 29th.
This means it lines up quite nicely for us. We will have played out all our friendlies, then likely taken a beating against Man City on the Premier League opening day on the 18th. This first leg then gives us a chance to build some midweek confidence before we roll on with our Premier League season.
The late return to training of players like Cole Palmer plus the bloated squad will mean there are plenty of players still keen for minutes at that point, so these two games give Maresca a nice chance as a sort of competitive preseason game.