English and Italian football giants Manchester City, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Juventus will clash in pre-season friendlies in Hong Kong in August, the clubs announced on Tuesday.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, currently battling Arsenal for the Premier League title, will face Inter on Saturday, August 1, led by their Norwegian goal machine Erling Haaland.
The match will kick off the “Hong Kong Football Festival” at the city’s futuristic 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium.
The glitzy arena opened a year ago, with a retractable roof and air conditioning to combat Hong Kong’s fierce summer heat and humidity.
Chelsea will play Juventus on Wednesday, August 5, to conclude the mini-tournament.
Inter, under former Romanian international Cristian Chivu, are eight points clear at the top of Serie A as they seek a 21st title, second only to Juventus, who have won a record 36 Italian league titles.
Juventus is fourth and looking to secure a place in the Champions League under Luciano Spalletti.
Chelsea beat PSG to win the Club World Cup in the United States last year, but have since parted ways with then-manager Enzo Maresca.
Liam Rosenior took charge but is under pressure to keep his place as Chelsea have lost five of their last six Premier League games to drop to sixth place, seven points off the Champions League places.
It remains to be seen whether Rosenior will still be in charge when Chelsea land in Hong Kong after they were also beaten 8-2 on aggregate by PSG in the last 16 of the Champions League.
All teams will hold open training sessions before the matches giving Hong Kong fans an extra opportunity to see star players such as City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez and Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic.
The action doesn’t stop there for fans in the football-mad southern Chinese city, as Bayern Munich and Aston Villa have already announced they will play a friendly in Hong Kong on Friday 7 August.
Long last year’s preseason50,000 sell-out crowds in Hong Kong watched Liverpool play AC Milan and Tottenham take on Arsenal in the first north London derby outside the UK.
Tens of thousands also turned out to watch the teams’ open training sessions.
