Chelsea will be heading to Wales in the fifth round of this season’s FA Cup, a part of the world which has produced some fan-favourite Blues and memorable knockout ties in the past.
Monday evening’s draw for the FA Cup fifth round paired Chelsea with Championship side Wrexham, meaning an away trip across the border for a game at the Racecourse Ground in early March.
It is a venue we haven’t visited since an epic meeting in the same competition back in 1982, which originally started at Stamford Bridge. After a goalless game in the fourth round we headed to the Racecourse Ground for a match which also ended level. A second replay in Wales finally saw the Blues triumph 2-1, thanks to goals by Micky Droy and Alan Mayes.
Our strongest link to Wrexham was created slightly later in that decade, and actually came from an Englishman. John Neal was Chelsea manager for those FA Cup ties, but had built his reputation as a giant killer with the Reds.
He took over in dark days at Stamford Bridge, but rebuilt the team and set us back on the path to the big time, helped by three Welsh internationals he had previously worked with at Wrexham.
Goalkeeper Eddie Niedzwiecki joined alongside lifelong friends Joey Jones and Mickey Thomas, and the three made more than 300 appearances between them, as the Blues went from the second division relegation scrap to a sixth-place finish in the top tier.
Wrexham are one of four different Welsh clubs we have faced in competitive action, and all four have been in knockout football.
Cardiff City and Swansea City are by far our most common opponents from across the border. We suffered a shock League Cup semi-final defeat to the Swans in 2012/13, but it was a victory over the Bluebirds which was our most recent trip to Wales. That came this season, when an Alejandro Garnacho brace and Pedro Neto goal gave us a 3-1 win and booked our place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
The other Welsh opponents for the Blues came in a solitary game in 1974/75, when we opened our League Cup campaign at home against Newport County. An entertaining back-and-forth tie was kicked off by an early goal from the legendary Charlie Cooke, but it took a hat-trick by Chris Garland to ultimately see us through with a 4-2 win.
The most famous Welshman to pull on the Chelsea shirt is probably Mark Hughes, who arrived a decade later than Neal's ex-Wrexham trio, having already enjoyed success with Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He would help our move into the modern era by lifting the FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup.
More recently, Ethan Ampadu developed in the Chelsea Academy and looks set to surpass 60 caps for Wales as they attempt to qualify for this summer’s FIFA World Cup via the play-offs.
Down the road at Kingsmeadow, Sophie Ingle won every domestic trophy going with Chelsea Women, including five successive Women’s Super League titles. She was also capped an impressive 147 times by Wales, while captaining her country for nine years.
The next chapter in Chelsea's history in Wales begins next month, when we travel to Wrexham in the FA Cup fifth round.