Chelsea are to play a pre-season fixture in England in July. We will take on Reading away. The date of the game is Sunday 28 July with kick-off at 3pm. The venue is Reading’s Madejski Stadium with ticket details to be announced in due course. The news of this fixture follows on from last month’s announcement of a game away in Austria against RB Salzburg on Wednesday 31 July.
Prior to those two matches the squad visits Japan, where we play against J.League champions Kawasaki Frontale in Yokohama on 19 July before facing Barcelona in Saitama on 23 July.Our opponents in the match announced today, Reading, finished 20th in the Championship in the season just completed.They have in their squad John Swift, a Chelsea youth product and midfielder who made one appearance for our senior side, on the final day of the season at Cardiff in May 2014. He has been at Reading for the past three seasons having previously been on loan at Rotherham, Swindon and Brentford. Also at Reading is goalkeeper Sam Walker who came through the Chelsea Academy before joining Colchester in 2014. He moved to the Royals last summer.We last played away at Reading in January 2013, a Premier League match which ended 2-2. Juan Mata and Frank Lampard put the Blues into a 2-0 lead but the win was let slip when substitute Adam Le Fondre scored twice late on, the equaliser coming in the sixth minute of added time.
The Blues previously won there when paying Premier League visits in 2006 and 2007, and in the League Cup when we played there in 2003. We also visited in pre-season in 2009.
Read: Chelsea to play Barcelona in Japan