Chelsea vs Benfica – Team News: Defender given first team chance as Enzo Maresca experiments ahead of new season | OneFootball

Chelsea face Benfica in North Carolina in just over an hour, and the teams are in!

Enzo Maresca has picked his strongest team, as you’d expect.

At the back Robert Sanchez keeps his place in goal, returning after Filip Jorgensen had a run out against ES Tunis.

In the back four, Reece James is back to play right back, with first choice left back Marc Cucurella also returning.

In the middle, Levi Colwill is in – but he lines up with Benoit Badiashile, interestingly. One might have expected Tosin Adarabioyo or Trevoh Chalobah, so this is an interesting opportunity for BB.

Beyond them, Maresca has gone with the lineup that we’ve seen a few times recently, featuring Cole Palmer as one of the wingers. That means a solid midfield 3 of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, with Palmer and Pedro Neto playing out wide ahead of them.

With Nicolas Jackson’s red card ban having had an extra game added to it, Liam Delap keeps his place up top.

Here are the full team line-ups for Benfica vs Chelsea (kick off at 21:00 GMT)

CHELSEA:

Chelsea’s team to face Benfica in the Club World Cup second round.

Chelsea’s tournament starts to get exciting with knockouts beginning

We were always excited for this tournament, seeing as it has the Blues pitted against the best teams in Europe, and that’s especially true now we’re into the knockout stages.

This won’t be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is at least winnable. Best Benfica and we have another favourable game against Palmeiras lined up. Beat them and we’re into the semi finals. We’re really excited to see what Maresca’s team can produce in this game, with a decent bit of expectation on them already and a lot to be gained with a good result.

Let’s go Chelsea!