The Blues were based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania throughout the group stage of the Club World Cup, with the city’s Lincoln Financial Field already hosting two of our matches in the tournament before our quarter-final.

We return to Lincoln Financial Field this weekend to face Brazilian side Palmeiras in the last eight of the competition, with kick-off at 2am UK time on Saturday 5 July. Tickets are still available to purchase from FIFA here, while supporters worldwide can watch the game live via DAZN by signing up for free here.

It is 20 years since Chelsea's first visit to Philadelphia, with one win and one loss at the stadium before this summer's tournament…

Chelsea 2-3 Milan, 2 August 2004

New Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho took his team to the USA for his first pre-season in the Blues dugout. It was the start of a momentous period for the club, as we ended the 2004/05 campaign by claiming our first Premier League title and ending our 50-year wait to be crowned champions of England for the second time.

Our third game of the US tour saw us at Lincoln Financial Field to take on an AC Milan side who had just won their own domestic title and lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy the previous year - led by Carlo Ancelotti, who would later manage Chelsea to our first domestic Double.

It was our toughest challenge of pre-season and ultimately resulted in our only defeat. That was despite a promising start when we took the lead twice in the first half, through Eidur Gudjohnsen and then Didier Drogba, either side of Cafu’s equaliser.

Unfortunately, Milan’s pedigree showed after the break, as Alessandro Costacurta levelled again before future Blues striker Andriy Shevchenko netted an 87th-minute winner, but it was Chelsea who would be celebrating come the end of a historic season.

Chelsea 4-3 Brighton, 22 July 2023

The opening game of the inaugural Premier League Summer Series was played at Lincoln Financial Field and featured Chelsea facing Brighton & Hove Albion in an all-English affair Stateside.

The 65,000 supporters attending the game were in for a real treat, as a seven-goal thriller ended in Chelsea’s favour. A relatively subdued first half gave little clue that the floodgates would open, as Christopher Nkunku equalised after Danny Welbeck’s Brighton opener to make it 1-1 at the break.

We pulled ahead for the first time through Mykhailo Mudryk just after the hour mark and, despite the drama, we would not surrender our lead. Two goals in the space of three minutes by Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson, the latter netting in a Chelsea shirt for the first time, gave us what seemed like a comfortable lead.

However, following widespread changes, Brighton hit back twice to make it a nervier finish than it should have been. We held on for a 4-3 victory though, with new striker Jackson – wearing the unfamiliar No.43 shirt for this tour – the decisive player after getting a goal and two assists, despite only featuring for the final half-an-hour.

Flamengo 3-1 Chelsea, 20 June 2025

Palmeiras are the second Brazilian team we will face in this year’s Club World Cup. Earlier in the tournament we took on Serie A league leaders Flamengo in our second group game.

However, we couldn’t build on our promising start, after Pedro Neto opened the scoring early on with his second goal in as many games at this summer’s tournament. Strikes by Bruno Henrique, Danilo and Wallace Yan in the space of 21 second-half minutes, in a game which saw Nicolas Jackson sent off with the score 2-1, left us on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline.

We progressed to the knockout stages anyway, though, finishing second in our group thanks to victories in both our other two games in that round of the competition.

Esperance de Tunisie 0-3 Chelsea, 25 June 2025

The Blues' progress to the knockout stages of this Club World Cup was secured with a victory over Tunisian champions Esperance in our third and final group fixture.

Despite being in control right from the start, it took us a while to get off the mark, briefly looking like the game would be goalless at the break. Then, in first-half stoppage time, Tosin Adarabioyo headed in an Enzo Fernandez set-piece and Liam Delap netted his first Chelsea goal.

We never looked back from there, and Tyrique George added further gloss to the scoreline by drilling in a low effort late on, to send us into the last 16 of the Club World Cup in style.