UEFA Super Cup: Christian Pulisic talks chess & N'Golo Kante ahead of the Villarreal clash

Before the 2021-22 season kicks in, Chelsea and Villarreal will be facing each other in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday, August 11.  The match is scheduled to be played at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park in Belfast. Chelsea will enter the match as UEFA Champion League winners, while Villarreal won the Europa League. Ahead of the clash, Chelsea midfielder Christian Pulisic made a major revelation about his teammate and French midfielder N’Golo Kante.

Chelsea vs Villarreal: Christian Pulisic reveals the other sport in which he and N’Golo Kante play well

In an interview with Daily Mail, Christian Pulisic revealed that he and N’Golo Kante are the best chess players at Chelsea. He said, “Chess is a recent passion that I rekindled during all the time indoors in lockdown. I’d say N’golo (Kante) and I are the top two." In the interview, Pulisic also made an admission about his teammates' liking for chess in their spare time and how Kante is the man to beat. He said, "We always have good battles. He was much stronger than me when I started, always the No 1, but I made it my goal to beat him so I had to work hard."

The American International also admitted to developing interest for the sport by watching Kante play against former teammate Olivier Giroud. He added,  “I used to see him (Kante) playing Olivier Giroud on the plane and we’d talk about it. It’s an incredible game that can help you with a lot of things like problem-solving or seeing different patterns. I’m not saying it directly correlates to me being a better footballer but it’s certainly better than staring at a screen, gaming.’

UEFA Super Cup: Lineups

For Chelsea Mason Mount, Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Emerson Palmieri, Jorginho and Thiago Silva have been named in the squad but are unlikely to feature having featured for country in recent international matches. Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz are likely to start having given Chelsea the opportunity to play in the competition for the first time since 2013. Trevoh Chalobah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be the two players looking to impress in this high pressure match.

For Villarreal, Samuel Chukwueze will miss the clash as he continues to recover from a hip injury sustained against Arsenal in the Europa League semi-final, while Dani Parejo will also miss out with a calf problem. Recent Covid concerns have also seen Unai Emery's options get narrowed and it remains to be seen if Etienne Capoue, Francis Coquelin, Geronimo Rulli and Vicente Iborra will feature or not.

Image: chelseafc/Instagram