PARIS — English and Italian football giants Manchester City, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Juventus will square up for pre-season friendlies in Hong Kong in August, the clubs announced on Tuesday.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, currently arm-wrestling Arsenal for the English Premier League title, will take on Inter Milan on Saturday, August 1, spearheaded by their Norwegian goal machine Erling Haaland.
The match will kick off the “Hong Kong Football Festival” at the city’s 50.000-seat stadium.
The gleaming arena opened a year ago, featuring a roof that can be closed and air-conditioning to combat the fierce summer heat and humidity in Hong Kong.
Chelsea will play Juventus on Wednesday, August 5 to round off the mini-tournament.
Inter, under former Romanian international Cristian Chivu, is eight points clear at the top of Serie A as they look for a 21st title, second only to Juventus who has won a record 36 Italian top-flight championships.
Juventus is fourth and looking to secure a Champions League spot under Luciano Spalletti.
Chelsea beat PSG to win the Club World Cup in the United States last year but has since parted company with then manager Enzo Maresca.
Liam Rosenior took charge but is under pressure to keep his job after Chelsea lost five of their last six Premier League matches to drop to sixth, seven points adrift of the Champions League places.
It remains to be seen whether Rosenior will still be in charge when Chelsea land in Hong Kong as they were also drubbed 8-2 on aggregate by PSG in the Champions League last 16.
All the teams will hold open training sessions ahead of the matches giving Hong Kong fans an extra chance to see star players such as City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, Inter’s Lautaro Martinez and Juventus’s Dusan Vlahovic.
The action does not stop there for fans, as Bayern Munich and Aston Villa have already announced they will play a friendly in Hong Kong on Friday, August 7.
During pre-season last year, 50.000 sell-out crowds in Hong Kong watched Liverpool will play AC Milan and Tottenham will face Arsenal in the first north London derby outside of the UK.
Tens of thousands also turned out to watch the teams’ open training sessions.
