Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard. (Photo : Getty Images)
Italian Serie A squad AC Milan will meet English Premier League side Chelsea FC in both club's final game in the 2016 International Champions Cup North America leg competitions. The match is scheduled to be held at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Wednesday, August 3.
Milan had split their first two games of the friendly tournament after they won their opening fixture against Bayern Munich, 3-3 (5-3) on penalties, last week while dropping a 0-2 romp to Liverpool on Saturday at the Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.
The Reds' Divock Origi and Roberto Firmino scored a goal each in the said contest while new I Rossoneri head coach Vincenzo Montella's boys were not able to respond to Liverpool's relentless attacks, BBC Sport indicated.
Meanwhile, Chelsea also split their two games in the 2016 ICC by pulling off a 1-0 win over Liverpool in their first game then losing a close one to Real Madrid, 2-3, at the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor also last Saturday.
The Guardian reported that the match was watched by 105,826 spectators, which was the "second largest crowd ever for soccer in the United States".
Los Blancos scored three first half goals courtesy of a brace from Marcelo and one from Mariano, but the Blues' Eden Hazard netted two in the last ten minutes to make the score more respectable in the end.
Milan and Chelsea have new managers heading into the new season with Montella and Antonio Conte and so these preseason friendlies are important for them to further assess their squads. Also, both are popular teams even outside Europe so they would want to also try to win this match to improve their brand identity, which means that a competitive game is at hand.
Like in most years, the games had been generally unpredictable this preseason, but the Blues are expected to carry over the momentum of the final minutes in their match against Real.
The predicted result is a 3-1 win for Chelsea.
AC Milan starting lineup (4-1-4-1 formation): Gabriel; Abate, Vergara, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Montolivo; Suso, Bertolacci, Zanellato, Niang; Adriano
Chelsea starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Begovic; Aina, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Oscar, Matic; Willian, Traore, Pedro; Loftus-Cheek
