{"id":264906,"date":"2025-11-05T19:09:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264906\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:09:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:09:04","slug":"champions-league-build-up-man-city-newcastle-and-chelsea-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264906\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League build-up: Man City, Newcastle and Chelsea in action"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘A demanding schedule but we will try our best’published at 15:54 GMT<\/p>\n

15:54 GMT<\/p>\n

Qarabag v Chelsea (17:45 GMT)<\/p>\n

\"EnzoImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca says tonight’s clash with Qarabag is “very important” but admits he will probably need to rotate due to the “demanding schedule”. <\/p>\n

Maresca said: “It is an important game. It can give us three wins in a row in Champions League, nine points, so very important. <\/p>\n

“We will probably need to rotate some of the players, also because I think we come back to London on Thursday morning at 06:00, then have game on Saturday. A demanding schedule but we will try our best.”<\/p>\n

On Reece James’ fitness: “He is good, doing well. Fit, 100%. The way he behaves every game is top, even when not playing, in the changing room with team-mates. I think he is ready to play three games in a week. <\/p>\n

“It depends also on how we use Reece, too. Not always up and down [the wing]. It is a big job for anyone so we need to protect him like others in that way.”<\/p>\n

Maresca says he hopes Cole Palmer could be ready for their next Champions League game against Barcelona after the international break: “With Cole we try to schedule at the beginning, but we needed to review so we go day by day with Cole. He’s still apart, not training with the team.<\/p>\n

“I would like Cole every game. I have said before we are a better team with him. Unfortunately he is out injured, but we hope he will be back soon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘A demanding schedule but we will try our best’published at 15:54 GMT 15:54 GMT Qarabag v Chelsea (17:45…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-264906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}