Usually, football players go to Greece for an off-season party. This time we are going there purely for business.

And things have been going quite well lately, despite the defeat to Liverpool on Sunday: before that we had already been unbeaten in seven games. Perfect opportunity to start a new streak!

This is matchday number two of six in the competition phase of the UEFA Conference League. Our 4-2 win over Gent on matchday one puts us sixth in the 36-team league. The best eight advance directly to the eighth finals.

Please note that the starting time is earlier than normal.

Date/time: Thursday October 24, 2024; 5.45pm BST; 12:45 PM EDT; 10:15 PM IST
Location: Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece
Referee: António Nobre (on field); André Narciso (VAR)
Prediction: nice and warm with a lovely breeze… ahhhh Greece

On television: TNT Sport 1 (UK); none (US); Sony TEN 5 (India); elsewhere
Streaming: discovery+ (UK); Paramount+ (US); Sony LIV (India)

Photo by George Wood/Getty Images

Panathinaikos team news: Panathinaikos, one of the big three of Greek football (along with AEK Athens and Olympiacos), finished fourth last season, but won the Greek Cup. However, there was significant turnover over the summer and they are currently only sixth in the table, having won just three out of eight.

In Europe, they lost to Ajax in the Europa League qualifying rounds, but defeated Lens in the Conference League qualifiers to get into the competition stage itself. On the first matchday they only managed to win a draw against the Bosnian champions Borac Banja Luka.

But that’s all secondary at the club at the moment following the tragic death of George Baldock. The former Sheffield United defender, who played for the Greek national team, joined the club this summer; this will be their first home game since the news broke earlier this month.

Other summer signings include former Manchester United prospect Facundo Pellistri and former Shakhtar winger Tetê. Slovenian international Andraž Šporar is their biggest goal threat: he missed the 2022 FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea through illness while playing for Middlesbrough; he seems to have recovered from another illness just in time!

Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Chelsea team news: Chelsea has a clean bill of health – that’s rare! – where goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen was declared fit after his concussion and could therefore probably start. Mykhailo Mudryk was also absent this weekend; that is attributed to a “technical decision” – that is, not being good enough. But he gets a chance to shine in this one, just like the rest of the B team probably.

Among the traveling group of 22 are youngsters Tyrique George, Sam Rak-Sakyi and 17-year-old (barely) Shim Mhueka. For the latter two, it could be their first high-level official involvement.

Those left behind at Cobham include those not entered for this stage of the competition, Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana, Roméo Lavia (and Ben Chilwell), as well as those undergoing workload management: Moisés Caicedo, Nicolas Jackson, Malo Gusto, Levi Colwill and Reece James.

Previously: This will be our fourth match against Greek opposition in Greece, but the first against Panathinaikos. As indicated on the official website, every time we played against a Greek team in Europe, we reached the final of that competition: Cup Winners’ Cup 1970-71 (Aris Salonika), Champions League 2007-2008 (Olympiacos), Europa League 2018 /19 (PAOK). We would win two of those three.