Chelsea will play in below freezing conditions when they face FC Astana at the Almaty Ortalyk Stadion on Thursday.
Enzo Maresca’s Blues are making the 16-hour round trip to Kazakhstan for matchday five in the League Phase, with a win over Astana ensuring their progression into the last-16 of the Conference League is confirmed.
Chelsea have taken a rotated side out to Almaty for the European clash, which has seen the likes of Robert Sanchez, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella, Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson all stay behind at their Cobham training base.
It will give the opportunity to the players who have featured regularly in the cup competitions to get more minutes under their belts. Youngster Josh Acheampong is close to signing a new contract, Maresca confirmed, and the 18-year-old is set to start in Kazakhstan.
Chelsea have already planned their trip for how they will cope with the five-hour time difference. Maresca will ensure his Blues will remain on the United Kingdom’s timezone, with the visitors in Almaty for less than 24 hours.
“We have a session now, then we fly there, eight hours, then we arrive, have dinner, then bed,” Maresca revealed on Wednesday when asked about Chelsea’s plans for the match.
“Fortunately, they are five hours ahead of us so that means when we wake up tomorrow, it is already midday here in England. We are going to be there less than 24 hours. It is more the flight, the temperature, and on Friday we are going to land about 6 o’clock in London and it is already Friday and we have a game on Sunday but we have to play.”
But when Chelsea take to the pitch for the 3.30pm (UK) kick off on Thursday, how cold will it be at the Almaty Ortalyk Stadion?
It will be 8.30pm local time when Chelsea get underway. When Sven Jablonski (GER) blows his whistle for the game to get underway, it will be around -11 in Almaty, as reported by the BBC.
Maresca and the rest of the Chelsea squad have insisted they will do their best to adapt to the conditions on Thursday, but there’s no escaping how cold it will be.
“It’s a big difference,” said Maresca pre-match, “but as I said, we have to go, we have to play, we have to try and do our best and try to adapt to the conditions.”
