Chelsea and Milan Prepare for Friendly in Jakarta
On a humid Saturday in Jakarta, far from the familiar rhythms of Stamford Bridge and San Siro, Chelsea and AC Milan will try to stitch together something resembling coherence from patched-up, World Cup-weary squads.
Kick-off is 1pm BST at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. The setting is grand. The teams, right now, are anything but full strength.
Alonso juggling absences and opportunity
Xabi Alonso walks into this friendly with a whiteboard full of problems and possibilities.
A sizeable chunk of his core is missing. Enzo Fernández, Reece James, Malo Gusto, Jordan Henderson, Maxence Lacroix, Morgan Rogers and Valentín Barco are all out of contention, still working their way back to match fitness after the World Cup. It’s not a tweak here or a precaution there; it’s the spine, the width, and much of the leadership stripped out of his squad.
So the pre-season tour has become a laboratory.
There is some relief. Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill, both rested against Juventus after minor knocks, are expected to return. Palmer’s craft between the lines and Colwill’s left-footed balance in defence give Chelsea a very different look when they’re on the pitch. Alonso needs that control after back-to-back defeats.
Then there is Mykhailo Mudryk. Twenty months out of the game through an anti-doping suspension, a brief substitute appearance has already broken the ice. Now he is in line for more minutes, the club eager to move from tentative comeback to meaningful involvement. Every touch he takes in Jakarta will be watched closely: is the acceleration still there, is the sharpness returning, is the confidence intact?
Not everyone is on the plane. Trevoh Chalobah has been left out of the touring squad entirely as a permanent move away from Stamford Bridge inches closer. For years he has been the reliable plug-in solution across the back line; now his absence underlines a changing of the guard.
That, in turn, opens doors. New arrival Danny Welbeck, with all his Premier League miles, suddenly looks like a valuable short-term anchor in an otherwise experimental side. Young winger Geovany Quenda, still largely unknown outside academy circles, can make a serious case for himself if he seizes the moment in Indonesia.
The predicted XI reflects the compromise between development and damage limitation: Penders in goal; Palestra, Colwill, Acheampong and another Palestra variant across the back; Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia as the double pivot; Estevao, Palmer and Gittens supporting Pedro up front. It is youthful, technical, and still raw.
Chelsea’s pre-season under Alonso started with a clean win over Western Sydney Wanderers. Since then, the wheels have juddered. A narrow defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, then a 1-0 reverse to Juventus in Hong Kong, have cooled the early optimism. The performance in Jakarta will not define Alonso’s tenure, but another flat outing would add an unwelcome edge to the narrative around his start.
Amorim rotates as Milan manage the load
On the opposite bench, Rúben Amorim is facing his own version of the same headache.
Christian Pulisic will not get his reunion with Chelsea. The former Blues winger is officially ruled out with a persistent thigh problem sustained during his World Cup campaign, a frustration for Milan’s commercial team and a disappointment for the player himself. Newly signed defender Mario Gila is also sidelined and will play no part, trimming Amorim’s options at the back.
The schedule has been unforgiving. Milan arrive in Jakarta just days after an intense derby against Inter Milan in Perth, a 1-1 draw salvaged by Christopher Nkunku’s equaliser. With such a short turnaround, Amorim is expected to lean heavily on rotation.
That should mean a prominent role again for Nkunku, who has quickly become central to Milan’s attacking threat on this tour. It should also hand starts to Luka Modrić and Gonçalo Ramos. Modrić, even in the twilight of his career, dictates tempo like few others; Ramos offers the penalty-box edge that can turn a friendly into a statement.
Milan’s summer form tells its own story. A 2-2 draw with Celtic, then that 1-1 against Inter: resilient, competitive, but not yet ruthless. The patterns are there, the sharpness is still coming. Jakarta is another checkpoint rather than a final exam.
The projected line-up has Torriani in goal; Terracciano, Gabbia and Tomori as a back three; Saelemaekers, Fofana, Jashari and Estupinan across midfield; Chukwueze and Nkunku floating behind Ramos. It is a side built to transition quickly and to press selectively, but one that still needs time to gel.
A friendly with edge
Strip away the “pre-season” label and there is plenty riding on this.
Chelsea need to halt a mini-slide and show that Alonso’s ideas are beginning to take root, even with half a squad missing. Individual stories – Mudryk’s return, Palmer’s influence, Quenda’s emergence – will be scrutinised as much as the scoreline.
Milan, juggling travel fatigue and high expectations, want to turn stubborn draws into something more convincing. Amorim has used this tour to test combinations; Jakarta offers another chance to see whether Nkunku, Modrić and Ramos can form a spine that carries into the competitive season.
The venue, the heat, the travelling fans: it all adds a layer of theatre to what, on paper, is just another stop on a summer tour.
For both clubs, though, this is where excuses start to run out and standards begin to bite.
