Chelsea's summer program is starting to take shape. Three friendlies in the USA, against Liverpool, Real Madrid, and AC Milan have already been confirmed for the end of July and beginning of August, but those are likely to be just the final few pre-season appointments. Based on reports out of Austria, Chelsea may be staying a bit closer to home for the first half of the summer.
Es ist fix! Ein Topklub der @premierleague ist am 16. Juli zu Gast beim @skrapid!https://t.co/j4HgNmyhwn pic.twitter.com/jL1OXssiKc
— Krone Sport (@kronesport) March 27, 2016
According to Austria's Kronen Zeitung, the opponents for the first ever match at Rapid Wien's new stadium, the Allianz Arena Stadion will be none other than Chelsea. The match will take place on July 16th, after which Chelsea will open a training camp at Velden am Wörthersee. This is the same place where we held a two-week training camp in the summer of 2014, while awaiting the return of players with summer commitments. Sounds like we might be following that winning formula this summer as well, at least until the whole trip to the USA bit.
Neither Rapid nor Chelsea have official confirmed this fixture yet, but the Austrian sources seem fairly convinced that after months of speculation, Rapid have found an opponent for the stadium inauguration.