Chelsea's pre-season tour of Australia and Asia continued on Wednesday with a high-profile friendly against Juventus at the Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong, kicking off at 12:30pm BST. The match offered new boss Xabi Alonso another opportunity to assess his squad ahead of the Premier League season, which begins in roughly three weeks.
The Blues arrived in Hong Kong on the back of a mixed start to their tour, having thrashed Western Sydney Wanderers 6-4 before suffering a dramatic 2-1 loss to 10-man Tottenham, with Richarlison netting a stoppage-time winner despite Kevin Danso's red card for Chelsea's London rivals. Juventus, by contrast, arrived unbeaten and yet to concede this pre-season, following a goalless draw with Basel and subsequent wins over Standard Liege and Nice.
Speaking ahead of the fixture, Alonso acknowledged his side remain a work in progress. "We are in the middle of the pre-season, I would say. It's three weeks since we started, three weeks to go, more or less," he said. "So we take every game, we analyse it... We know that Juve is a great team, with great experienced players, with a great coach, so it's going to be a great, interesting and useful test for us."
The headline team news centred on Mykhailo Mudryk, who was included in the squad and eligible to play for the first time since November 2024 after successfully appealing part of his doping suspension. Chelsea confirmed in a statement that advances in testing standards meant his sample would not have registered as positive under today's technical requirements. Alonso welcomed the Ukrainian back warmly. "We are thrilled that Misha could be with us," he said. "I think that you could see his smile, how great it was for him to be part of a team, because he's been a long time training on his own." The manager confirmed Mudryk was available for selection, though cautioned that a full 90 minutes might be "too early" given his lengthy absence from team training.
New signing Danny Welbeck, who completed a move from Brighton last week, was also cleared to feature. Pedro Neto and Geovany Quenda had rejoined the squad in Hong Kong after recovering from injury and a post-World Cup break respectively, while goalkeepers Mike Penders and Gabriel Slonina also travelled. Robert Sanchez, who missed the Tottenham game with a minor issue, was reported to be much improved. Jordan Henderson remained on holiday following England's World Cup semi-final run and was set to have his wrist injury assessed before returning to training.
Moises Caicedo and Nicolas Jackson were both in line to feature after being left out against Tottenham. Alonso praised Jackson's threat in attack, stating: "Nico is a great player. He's a threat to play against any defence, so we want to have players that can compete." Caicedo, meanwhile, recently signed a contract extension and expressed his gratitude to supporters in Hong Kong. "I wanted to keep playing for the club," he said. "The club wanted to renew the contract and I said yes because I want to become a legend here." He also thanked the local fanbase, adding: "The people here have been great. We feel like we are at home."
Juventus named their team first, fielding former Chelsea winger Jeremie Boga in a lineup of Di Gregorio; Kalulu, Gatti, Kelly, Celik; Douglas Luiz, Locatelli; Boga, Miretti, Cambiaso; Milik. New arrivals Randal Kolo Muani and Kerim Alajbegovic, the latter a reported Chelsea target before his move from Bayer Leverkusen, were among Juventus's summer additions, though Alajbegovic did not feature. Injuries kept Jeff Ekhator and Khephren Thuram sidelined for the Italian side.
The clash marked another step in Alonso's efforts to shape his squad identity before the competitive campaign resumes, with both sets of fans in Hong Kong treated to a meeting of two European heavyweights during the tour's Asian leg.
Based on reporting from standard-football and independent-football.