Blues Beefed Up For Hamburg

In a few hours Chelsea will kick off their fourth and final pre-season match against Hamburg in the Volksparkstadion, Germany.

After a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Frankfurt on Sunday, Ancelotti will be looking for a better display from his team as part of the preparation for the Community Shield match with United this coming weekend.

With all the players back from the World Cup now, and only a few notable absentees remaining in England for treatment to injuries, it’s expected that Carlo will name as a strong a side as possible, and one that will more or less the same as that for Wembley match on Sunday.

Branislav Ivanovic is expected to start centrally with John Terry, with Cole and Ferreira the full backs initially, however expect game time for the impressive Van Aanholt and also Michael Mancienne too as the game progresses.

Lampard, Essien and Benayoun are all also expected to start in order to bring them up to match fitness, and we can expect to see Kalou, Anelka and Malouda as the probable front line with Mikel also taking the field at some point.

There should be plenty of opportunity for some of the younger squad as the game goes on, with Matic, McEachran and possibly Kakuta also getting the chance to stake their claims for game time this season.

The match kicks off at 17:00 and is only on Chelsea TV. We’ll endeavour to keep you updated with the action via Twitter.

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