Courageous Chelsea deserve Club World Cup quarter-final place after battling every adversity | OneFootball

Blues had to fight through everything to reach last eight

Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Malik Ouzia

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An ordeal Chelsea will hope never to have to go through again at least had a satisfying ending. They are Club World Cup quarter-finalists and deserved nothing less against Benfica.

Gianluca Prestianni, the Benfica midfielder, was sent off for a second bookable offence a mere two minutes into extra-time; a 30-minute period in which Chelsea pulled away from their opponents.

Christopher Nkunku was the unlikely scorer to put them back into the lead with a goal which prompted Enzo Maresca to run down to the corner flag to celebrate. Then Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewbury-Hall added further gloss for a 4-1 win. Where was that intensity from Chelsea when the game restarted in the 86th minute? For Maresca, it must all have been more than a bit maddening. No wonder his emotions ran free after Nkunku netted. The Blues now face Palmeiras in the quarter-finals.

It is little wonder Chelsea were so vexed when the referee halted play with only four minutes left of normal time.

For one, four minutes plus stoppage time is no time at all when the reason for suspending play is not a thunderstorm itself, but merely the impending threat of one — a menacing cloud overhead. After the pause, the lightning did follow.

But the more likely source of their frustration was the context of the game: the Blues leading by a solitary goal and eager to quickly get out of there and move on from a scratchy, feisty match of little rhythm. They wanted the job done ASAP.

In he end, there was no ‘ASAP’ about it. This was an arduous marathon for the Blues in Charlotte, North Carolina, but one which ultimately had a happy ending and one from which they will grow as a team. That certainly appeared the case judging by their wild celebrations after Nkunku regained the lead.

It was Reece James’ audacious, glorious free-kick which opened the scoring halfway through the second half in a match that began fraught and tight but, by extra time, was open as anything and, by that point, all a bit bonkers.

Late hero: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall celebrates Chelsea’s fourth in extra time

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

James’ set piece was a moment of sheer genius. His right-footed inswinger from the left wing was a shot on goal when a cross was anticipated. But, more than that, it was a precision strike, curled with purpose into the narrowest of gaps between goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin and the near post. James leapt up and punched the air, a telling contribution from the Chelsea captain.

The Blues lacked rhythm for long periods at a Bank of America Stadium that was much less than half full even before it was later evacuated for the weather delay. They had little incision until the spaces opened up as Benfica began to tire in extra time.

That stiltedness from Chelsea was at its worst in a first half played, it felt, at half pace. Rarely did the Blues have anything of quality by way of end product, the last pass or last-but-one too often missing its intended target of cut out by a discipline Benfica backline led by Nicolas Otamendi, the former Manchester City dog of war.

It was a sign of Cole Palmer’s frustration that the no10 dropped increasingly deep to receive the ball, keen to drive Chelsea forward. When it worked, he would look to combine with Liam Delap and Pedro Neto, a mobile front three. As the game wore on, Palmer’s influence grew.

And he had support. Marc Cucurella was one of Chelsea’s better players on the day and came mightily close to giving them a first-half lead — twice — when he shot on target and was denied first by a block on the line from Antonio Silva and then by the hand of Trubin.

Delap got off the mark in a Chelsea shirt in their 3-0 win over ES Tunis in their final group game but was quieter here. That said, it will have given him confidence and certainly boded well quite how confidently he rounded Trubin and slotted into an empty net after half-time, albeit, the goal was disallowed for offside.

Maresca will have to adapt next time out, with his most important midfielder Moises Caicedo suspended after picking up a yellow card against Benfica.

But who to select instead is a problem for another day. And, in any case, had he and his players not already needed to adapt here?

Chelsea’s players were minutes from victory, then spent far more than an hour pedalling cycle machines to keep the blood pumping, then forwent their lead and headed for extra time, only to convincingly reach the finish line from there.

There is a sense that whatever this tournament throws at them from here, it cannot be any more surreal and unpredictable than all this. Chelsea battled the elements, Benfica and, frankly, themselves. Their prize is a winnable quarter-final against Palmeiras, as their US journey continues.