Chelsea have made a host of special arrangements to handle the more than 6,000km trip to Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The Conference League draw gave Chelsea an away trip to Astana, which has served as a significant logistical challenge for the club to organise.
Astana is the capital in central Kazakhstan but the match will be played in Almaty, 1,200 km away, in the south of the country, amid renovations to the club’s home stadium.
Chelsea have been given dispensation from Uefa to hold an early press conference and training session in Surrey, instead of the usual pre-match preview events typically hosted in the home country, to help manage their travel plans.
They will then travel to Almaty by a direct charterer eight-hour flight – as is often the case for matches away in Europe – while avoiding a direct flight path over Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East, amid multiple ongoing conflicts.
When in Kazakhstan, Chelsea’s players will avoid adapting to the Kazakhstan time zone, which is five hours ahead of the UK, effectively meaning they will treat the 8.30pm local kick-off as a 3.30pm kick-off time.
Manager Enzo Maresca also gave his squad the day off on Monday and will likely ring the changes again after the 4-2 win at Tottenham on Sunday.
The Italian has made between seven and 11 changes for almost every match week of the season as he uses his extensive squad.
In addition, several academy players will potentially get an opportunity for a match played in freezing temperatures between -6 and -11 degrees on Thursday.
Cole Palmer is among the players not selected to play in the competition but could be among the additions in February for the knockout rounds.
“I don’t know [if I’ll be on the plane],” said defender Benoit Badiashile. “You have to ask the boss. It’s far, far away.”
