Footballers usually travel to Greece to celebrate during the off-season. This time we are traveling there exclusively for business reasons.

And despite the loss to Liverpool on Sunday, business has been pretty good lately: we were unbeaten in seven games up to that point. Then this is the perfect opportunity to start a new series!

This is the second of six matchdays in the league phase of the UEFA Conference League. Our 4-2 win against Gent on matchday one puts us in sixth place in the 36-team league. The best eight go straight to the round of 16.

Please note the earlier start time than usual.

Date/Time: Thursday, October 24, 2024; 17.45 BST; 12:45 p.m. EDT; 10:15 PM IST
Venue: Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece
Referee: António Nobre (on the field); Andre Narciso (VAR)
Forecast: nice and warm with a nice breeze…ahhhh Greece

On TV: TNT Sports 1 (UK); none (USA); Sony TEN 5 (India); elsewhere
Streaming: Discovery+ (UK); Paramount+ (U.S.); Sony LIV (India)

Photo by George Wood/Getty Images

Panathinaikos team news: Panathinaikos, one of Greek football's big three (along with AEK Athens and Olympiacos), finished fourth last season but won the Greek Cup. However, there has been significant fluctuation over the summer and they currently sit in sixth place, having won just three of eight games.

In Europe, they lost to Ajax in the Europa League qualifying rounds, but beat Lens in the Conference League qualifying to advance to the actual league phase. On the first matchday they only managed a draw away from home against the Bosnian champions Borac Banja Luka.

But after the tragic death of George Baldock, this is all secondary to the club. The former Sheffield United defender, who played for the Greek national team, joined the club in the summer; This will be their first home game since the news broke earlier this month.

Other summer signings include former Manchester United youth player 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 due to 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! – although goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen has been declared fit after his concussion and is therefore probably ready to start. Mykhailo Mudryk was also missing at the weekend; This was attributed to a “technical decision” – that is, not being good enough. But he will get a chance to shine in this game, as will probably the rest of the B team.

The 22-person tour group includes young people Tyrique George, Sam Rak-Sakyi and just 17-year-old Shim Mhueka. For the latter two, it could be their first official engagement at the highest level.

Those left behind in Cobham include those not registered for this phase 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 game against a Greek opponent in Greece, but the first against Panathinaikos. As the official website says, every time we played against a Greek team in Europe we reached the final of that competition: Cup Winners' Cup 1970-71 (Aris Saloniki), Champions League 2007-08 (Olympiacos), Europa League 2018-19 (PAOK). We would win two of those three.