Last time Chelsea had to travel to play away in the farthest reaches of “Europe” (i.e. somewhere in the middle of Eurasia in Kazakhstan), we took not only the “B-team” but also a bunch of kids from the Academy,
leaving most of the first-team back in London.
But that was essentially a meaningless game in the Europa Conference League. This one is a fairly meaningful contest in the Champions League. We probably cannot risk dropping points here, especially if we hope to qualify comfortably and maybe even finish top-eight in the league phase.
Not to mention, despite having to come through three rounds of qualifying just to get to this point, Qarabag may not be the pushovers we remember from the last time we faced them, back in the group stages in 2017. They have won two of their three games so far in the league phase, beating Benfica and FC Copenhagen, before suffering defeat last time out, against Athletic Bilbao.
Given our propensity to play up or down to the occasion and the level of competition, let’s take this seriously.
