£100m centre back who is “very strong in duels” has perfect Chelsea audition tonight | OneFootball

Tonight’s opposition Benfica are just as good at producing players as they are at buying at selling them.

One of the their real gems right now is Antonio Silva, who came through the youth academy and has been a first team regular since he was a teenager.

He will take on a Chelsea team who are seriously depleted at the back in tonight’s game, and on the London is Blue podcast they speculated that this could be something of an “audition” for the 21 year old.

All round defender hailed as potential Chelsea star

“Silva in particular is an excellent all round centre back. Very strong in duels, can carry confidently, and also has these lovely line breaking passes where he hits them while travelling at speed,” their analyst said.

“We did talk about him being someone who has a great chance to do an audition for Chelsea. He’s heralded by Benfica as a £100m centre back, and we’re looking for a centre back who’s young, already in his national team, very good defensively. So keep a close eye on his performance in this one.”

Chelsea will struggle to fit elite player price tag into current model

Of course the price tag is going to be the big problem for Chelsea – there’s no way they’re going to pay close to €100m, but Benfica probably won’t accept that much less. He’s 21, has 18 Portugal caps and counting, and looks a top player already.

Perhaps it will be a case of letting Silva get closer to the end of his current contract then trying to take advantage of that – although that will mean lots of competition for his signature too.

All we know is that we’d be a lot more confident for tonight’s game if Silva was lining up for us rather than against us.