As Europe’s seeded representative at the Club World Cup, the Blues will enter the competition at the semi-final stage, and do not travel to the United Arab Emirates until after Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie against Plymouth Argyle at Stamford Bridge.
However, the earlier stages of the Club World Cup got under way today, with the UAE’s national champions Al Jazira playing Pirae of Tahiti in the first round, as the picture of who we could face in the last four got a little bit clearer.
Al Jazira came out on top with a comfortable 4-1 victory at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, opening the scoring after five minutes and racing into a three-goal lead by half-time. Their opponents pulled one back through an own goal shortly after the restart but later restored their three-goal advantage.