Astana 1 Chelsea 3

[My Blood Is Blue]

Please use this thread for all posts relating to our UEFA Conference League match against Astana at the Almaty Ortalyk Stadium before, during and after the game.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 15:30 hours on Thursday, 12th December 2024 (Local UK time/date) (Live on TNT Sports)

[My Blood Is Blue]

Note the kick-off time for this one, it is easy to forget and miss this!

[My Blood Is Blue]

All change! Apart from at CB where I expect Badiashile to start again. Hopefully a start for George in this one as well, to keep Madueke fresh for Brentford and give Neto a rest as well.

[chiswickblue]

9 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

All change! Apart from at CB where I expect Badiashile to start again. Hopefully a start for George in this one as well, to keep Madueke fresh for Brentford and give Neto a rest as well.

Casadei is suspended so hopefully we either see a debut for Kiano Dyer or Chukwuemeka playing deeper than usual.

Would be a great chance to reintegrate Acheampong too! I cant bear seeing Disasi at RB, even in this level of competition. He could then play CB so Badiashile can be rested for the weekend.

[Mark Kelly]

Think I'd play Sanchez in this one on the off chance he gets both his hands broken . 

[My Blood Is Blue]

4 minutes ago, chiswickblue said:

Casadei is suspended so hopefully we either see a debut for Kiano Dyer or Chukwuemeka playing deeper than usual.

Would be a great chance to reintegrate Acheampong too! I cant bear seeing Disasi at RB, even in this level of competition. He could then play CB so Badiashile can be rested for the weekend.

Oh yeah, forgot Casadei was suspended, that's a shame for him, but I agree, I would like to see Chukwuemeka get the start.

I think Acheampong is done here, for whatever the reason is, which is a shame as with the injuries to James, he'd be getting reasonable game time this season, this match being a good example.

[paulw66]

11 academy players travelling apparently 

[Blue Orca]

Flying out tomorrow via Turkey. We should have enough in the squad to win this one. 

[Blue Moon]

Take a jumper - it’s -19 out there!

[My Blood Is Blue]

It's taken the post from @Blue Moon to make me realise it's about time I added a 'Cold' Palmer reaction, the amount of times we have to talk about him in the matchday thread!

[Miguelito07]

1 hour ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

It's taken the post from @Blue Moon to make me realise it's about time I added a 'Cold' Palmer reaction, the amount of times we have to talk about him in the matchday thread!

Ha! I just thanked @JaneB on the other page. thank you. I like it

[Ham]

4 hours ago, Blue Orca said:

Flying out tomorrow via Turkey. We should have enough in the squad to win this one. 

Fair play to you 🥶

[paulw66]

to these academy lads; we've got some good news and bad news.

The good news is that you're making your debuts.

The bad news; you've got to fly thousands of miles and play in -19 

 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

Kazakhstan is where our ancestors (Turkish people) come from. Historically Central Asia was known as Turkistan.

Kazakh language is mutually intelligible with Turkish (alongside Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and a bunch of languages within Russia, China and other neighbouring places). They all identify as Turks but to save confusion with Turkish Turks, in English the overarching group is called Turkic. 

Us Turks from Turkey are mainly descendants of Turkified locals that's why we look more like the people from the Balkans, Caucasus and Middle East than the Kazakhs who have a more East Asian appearance which is probably the original look of the first Turkic tribes. 

When Turkey played an international there, there was a banner in the crowd which said "You left here on horses and had slanted eyes, now  you have returned on planes with round eyes". 

[asvaberg]

46 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

to these academy lads; we've got some good news and bad news.

The good news is that you're making your debuts.

The bad news; you've got to fly thousands of miles and play in -19 

 

I believe the stadium can be covered with it's retractable roof. With -19 to -21 Celcius I fully believe they will use this possibility to protect players and spectators.

[Proud-Blue]

13 hours ago, paulw66 said:

11 academy players travelling apparently 

I hope this is accurate, I would leave anyone who is likely to start against Brentford well at home. We can't have the first team spending about 16 hours on planes and training in -19C conditions when we have such an important match coming up.

 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

14 minutes ago, Proud-Blue said:

I hope this is accurate, I would leave anyone who is likely to start against Brentford well at home. We can't have the first team spending about 16 hours on planes and training in -19C conditions when we have such an important match coming up.

 

1000%

We are more or less through, no need to mess about.

[My Blood Is Blue]

52 minutes ago, Proud-Blue said:

I hope this is accurate, I would leave anyone who is likely to start against Brentford well at home. We can't have the first team spending about 16 hours on planes and training in -19C conditions when we have such an important match coming up.

 

Completely agree, I would be leaving as many that are starting and likely to even be involved on Sunday at home for this one. So I'd be looking at a travelling squad of:

11 Academy players
Jorgensen
Bettinelli/Bergstrom
Disasi
Chilwell
Veiga
Chukwuemeka
KDH
Mudryk
Guiu

[Sciatika]

I just looked up the stadium and am really disappointed. I was hoping for something that looks like a giant yurt. 

[Ham]

24 minutes ago, Sciatika said:

I just looked up the stadium and am really disappointed. I was hoping for something that looks like a giant yurt. 

Is good.  I like 😂

[My Blood Is Blue]

22 minutes ago, Ham said:

Is good.  I like 😂

[CarefreeMuratcan]

32 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

He is my neighbor, Arseniy Voliç. He is pain in my assholes. I rebuild glass of stadium , he must get a new glass stadium . I get a FA Cup at New Wembley, he must get a FA Cup at New Wembley. I get a European Cup, he cannot afford. Great success!

[east lower]

6 hours ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

Kazakhstan is where our ancestors (Turkish people) come from. Historically Central Asia was known as Turkistan.

Kazakh language is mutually intelligible with Turkish (alongside Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and a bunch of languages within Russia, China and other neighbouring places). They all identify as Turks but to save confusion with Turkish Turks, in English the overarching group is called Turkic. 

Us Turks from Turkey are mainly descendants of Turkified locals that's why we look more like the people from the Balkans, Caucasus and Middle East than the Kazakhs who have a more East Asian appearance which is probably the original look of the first Turkic tribes. 

When Turkey played an international there, there was a banner in the crowd which said "You left here on horses and had slanted eyes, now  you have returned on planes with round eyes". 

We flew over part of it last month, looks a desolate place from the air.  Must have been about 8 hrs flying to get through there. 

In Europe, my a***. Closer to China.

Not being disrespectful of your or anyone else’s heritage, but it’s no more Europe than the USA is and an absolute nonsense for football teams from Europe to have to travel there.

[asvaberg]

9 hours ago, east lower said:

We flew over part of it last month, looks a desolate place from the air.  Must have been about 8 hrs flying to get through there. 

In Europe, my a***. Closer to China.

Not being disrespectful of your or anyone else’s heritage, but it’s no more Europe than the USA is and an absolute nonsense for football teams from Europe to have to travel there.

Well, it is probably as much Europe as Hawaii is the USA..... 😜

[CarefreeMuratcan]

10 hours ago, east lower said:

We flew over part of it last month, looks a desolate place from the air.  Must have been about 8 hrs flying to get through there. 

In Europe, my a***. Closer to China.

Not being disrespectful of your or anyone else’s heritage, but it’s no more Europe than the USA is and an absolute nonsense for football teams from Europe to have to travel there.

1000% agreed. It's only in UEFA as a consequence of all Soviet Union successor states being allowed to join UEFA if they wish regardless of if they were well in Asia. There was talk of Uzbekistan wanting join at one stage as well when their football team heavily improved and Greenland have been mooted here and there too. 

I repeat from my previous post that ethnic Kazakhs are racially East Asian in appearance, a lot of their traditions and heritage is shared with Mongolians. It definitely stretches the definition of Europe quite a bit. 

Edited December 11, 2024 by CarefreeMuratcan