The Champions League anthem will play for the 200th time over Chelsea Football Club on Wednesday night, as we take on Ajax Amsterdam, one of the legends of this competition, appropriately enough — even
if their glory days of the early ‘70s and the mid ‘90s are long gone.
This will be match number three of eight in this new league-phase format that we’re still learning after a couple years. Chelsea lost game one, to Bayern, then beat José Mourinho’s Benfica in game two. Ajax have lost both of their games so far, to Inter and to Marseille, without managing a single goal. And they’ve struggled in their domestic league as well, sitting only fourth with just four wins from their first nine games. In fact, they have just one win from their last six in all competitions.
Chelsea appear to be trending in the opposite direction, and continued the momentum from the two wins before the international break with another solid win over Nottingham Forest over the weekend. It was an uneven performance but a good result.
Let’s keep winning!
Date / Time: Wednesday, October 22, 2025; 20.00 BST; 3pm EDT; 12:30am IST (next day)
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Felix Zwayer (on pitch); Söreh Storks (VAR)
Forecast: Chance of rain as the night goes on
On TV: TNT Sports 2 (UK); none (USA); Sony TEN 1 (India); SuperSport MáXimo 3 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: discovery+ (UK); Paramount+ (USA); Sony LIV (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Chelsea team news: Despite the two-week break — and in some ways, precisely because of it — Chelsea’s injury situation remains precarious. Enzo Fernández (knee) and Wesley Fofana (concussion) were held out of the game on Saturday as a precaution. Enzo was back in training this week and could feature. Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia, who each took half the game against Forest, should be available as well.
Levi Colwill, Liam Delap, Dário Essugo, Benoît Badiashile, and Cole Palmer remain out long-term. Yes, I’m just lumping Palmer in there now, since he’s out until at least December, and I’m personally not exactly hopeful that he will be over his groin issue by then. We will also be without João Pedro for this one after he got a second yellow and was sent off in the final seconds of the Benfica win.
Ajax Amsterdam team news: Ajax finished second in the Eredivisie last season, which by their standards is a disappointment, though it should be noted that they’ve “only” won the league three times in the last ten years (PSV have five in the meantime; Feyenoord the other two).
The summer then saw a couple key departures, including Jorrel Hato joining Chelsea and Brian Brobbey going to Sunderland, with a few new arrivals to match, including returning striker Kasper Dolberg and young attacking midfielder Oscar Gloukh. Dolberg is injured at the moment; veteran Wout Weghorst is stepping up and turning back the clock, having a good season with five goals to his name already to lead the team.
Ajax appointed their former player, John Heitinga as their new head coach in the summer, but Heitinga, in his first job as a full-time manager at the top level, is already coming under pressure. He will be hoping to have Steven Berghuis available, one of a few fitness doubts for the visitors alongside Ko Itakura and Owen Wijndal.
Previously: This will be third competitive meeting all-time between the two sides, after being in the same group back in 2019-20. The match at the Bridge that year, a 4-4 draw is an all-time classic.
