Legia Warsaw vs Chelsea – Team News: Maresca trusts academy with major changes to XI | OneFootball

Chelsea face Legia Warsaw in Poland in just over an hour, and the teams are in!

Enzo Maresca’s team tonight was always going to be hard to predict as he balances this competition with the intense run in in the Premier League, and indeed there are some very interesting decisions.

One thing we knew in advance was that Filip Jorgensen would keep his place in goal as our cup keeper. After that, things get interesting.

You couldn’t call it a rotated team, but you couldn’t call it a first team either.

In the back line, Benoit Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo make up the central defensive partnership, with Josh Acheampong and Malo Gusto out wide at full back.

Reece James starts in midfield, meaning he probably won’t feature this weekend having faced Brentford on Sunday. He plays with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who also keeps his place from that game, with Cole Palmer playing ahead in the number 10 role.

Christopher Nkunku and Jadon Sancho have both been struggling for form of late and will hope that this is the game that sparks their season up again. They play in the front 3 with youngster Tyrique George, whose minutes in this competition have been climbing steadily.

Here are the full team line-ups for Legia Warsaw vs Chelsea (kick off at 17:45 GMT)

CHELSEA:

Chelsea’s team to face Legia Warsaw.

The biggest news in all this is of course the usage of talented academy pair George and Acheampong. We wrote in the buildup to this game that it was unlikely that both would start given the intense atmosphere we will be up against in Poland, and we’re delighted to see that Maresca has trusted the academy kids in their biggest test yet.

It will be interesting to see how the manager uses his subs, knowing how important 3 points are on Sunday.