Chelsea star Joao Felix has delivered a glowing verdict on his club teammate ahead of Thursday’s match against Panathinaikos.
The Blues are back in action in the Conference League group stages this evening with an away match versus Greek club Panathinaikos.
Joao Felix is part of a 22-man group in Athens for the European tie. Chelsea have left five first-team players out of the squad for Panathinaikos, though.
Blues attacker Felix, 24, will hope to get some decent minutes under his belt because he’s found it hard since re-signing for the club in the summer. So far, the Portuguese forward is still yet to start a single match in the Premier League this season.
Joao Felix hails Christopher Nkunku
Felix has described Chelsea teammate Christopher Nkunku as a “top player” that he loves playing with.
“He’s a top player. We all know his qualities, we saw him as a player doing amazing things when he was in Leipzig,” Felix said via Chelsea’s official website.
“I think we see the game in a similar way and we know what each other is going to do. It’s easy to play with him and on the pitch, we connect very well.”
Similar to Felix, Nkunku has found it difficult to break into Chelsea’s best XI for the league fixtures. However, the 26-year-old Frenchman has certainly made his mark in the club’s various cup competitions.
In 12 appearances across all competitions this season, Nkunku has scored seven goals in return.
We’d guess that £52m star (Sky Sports) Nkunku will lead the line against Panathinaikos with Felix behind him as the No 10.
Chelsea firepower in the Conference League
It’s scary for opposition that Enzo Maresca can make wholesale changes to his Chelsea XI and still name such a strong team. It’s a credit to the club that they’ve assembled such a deep Blues squad.
Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Jadon Sancho were the starting front four in Chelsea’s 2-1 league defeat to Liverpool at the weekend. In theory, they could replace them all to bring in Nkunku, Felix, Pedro Neto and Mykhailo Mudryk.
We’re optimistic that Maresca’s side have the attacking firepower to go deep into this year’s Conference League campaign.
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