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New York Times

9 hours ago

Chelsea advance to the quarter-final after a wild match that included a weather delay of nearly two hours in Charlotte, North Carolina Getty Images
Chelsea have beaten 10-man Benfica 4-1 after extra time in a wild round of 16 match at the 2025 Club World Cup in Charlotte, North Carolina.
After Reece James had given Chelsea a 1-0 lead with a goal from a direct free kick, the match was suspended in the 86th minute for nearly two hours due to severe weather in the area. Once the match resumed, Benfica miraculously equalised deep in stoppage time thanks to Angel Di Maria's goal from the penalty spot after VAR spotted a handball by Malo Gusto.
The miracle ended there for Benfica, however, as Gianluca Prestianni was sent off for a second booking early in extra time. Chelsea retook the lead in the 108th minute as Christopher Nkunku finished off a scruffy rebound, before Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall added late goals to wrap things up.
Chelsea advance to the quarter-final to face Palmeiras on Friday.
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Chelsea win extraordinary four-hour Club World Cup match delayed by severe weather and packed with drama
While a colleague mentions that I've forgotten the Irishman (3hrs29 mins) from my list of movies, it sounds like we have got movement at Bank of America Stadium.
The teams are on their way back out and have agreed to a short warm-up in the hope of finishing the match before any further delays.
All being well, it sounds like we will have a restart before 8pm ET (1am BST). Getty Images
This is getting a bit ridiculous now, although completely understandable with the safety of everyone inside the stadium in mind.
The match kicked off more than three and a hours ago. In that time, here are a few of my favourite long movies you could have watched: Oppenheimer – 3hrs
The Green Mile – 3hrs9mins
Schindler's List – 3hrs15mins
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – 3hrs21mins
The Godfather Part II – 3hrs22mins
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
Reece James opened the scoring just 22 minutes ago in game minutes.
In real life minutes, it happened almost exactly two hours ago.
If you have forgotten it, or missed it completely, you can see it again below. Getty Images
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
While we wait for the players to re-emerge, we'd love to hear from you guys.
What are you doing to pass the time during the weather break? Have any of your Saturday night plans been dashed by the delay? And those of you following along in the early hours of the morning, what is your cut-off time before you decide to go to bed?
Email us at [e-mail] and we'll include some of your answers in our live coverage.
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
An insight into how the players are preparing for the restart.
You can see a few of their players on the exercise bike in the post below and there is another post showing the goalkeepers having a little kickabout.
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
That estimated restart time provided by DAZN seems to have fallen by the wayside.
There is still no sign of the players at Bank of America Stadium, so the game will categorically not be starting by 7:30pm ET (12:30am BST).
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
In case you're wondering, the media are able to stay in situ because the press box here at the Bank of America Stadium is indoors.
Indoor press boxes are a pet hate of mine — you feel shut off from the atmosphere — but on this occasion it is a blessing. It's quite a common thing in the U.S., but much much less so in Europe.
The first three that come to mind are, weirdly, Barcelona (Camp Nou), Cheltenham Town and Barrow.
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
A quick reminder that the time of the players coming back out and the time of the game restarting are two very different things.
They will all have to warm up again upon returning to the pitch and that warm-up will be more significant than just opening the gate and gentle jogging. It will not, however, be as extensive as the paces they are put through before a match starts.
So, all in all, the warm-up should last somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. Getty Images
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
This is very much a moving target as the clock resets if there is more lightning spotted in that 10-mile radius of the stadium, but we finally have word of a potential restart time.
The DAZN broadcast states that the estimated restart time is 7:25pm ET (12:25am BST).
Credit to those of you in the UK — and everyone else on a similar time zone — for sticking with us into the early hours of the morning!
It will be interesting to see how many fans come back for the resumption of play. The game was petering out fairly uneventfully.
If you had a choice, would you really stick around for an hour to watch the last five minutes? Getty Images
There were hopes that the players would only be off for half an hour once the weather delay begun, but we have now passed an hour since the referee took them all off the pitch.
And that means that there has been lightning in the area directly surrounding Bank of America Stadium.
For anyone that needs it, here is a reminder of FIFA's weather delay ruling:
The match is automatically suspended if there is lightning within 10 miles (16.1km) of the stadium. The match director is informed about it and then tells the referee to stop the game and take the players off the pitch.
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
There was also some off-field Chelsea news earlier that I'm sure will have excited their fans, and it came courtesy of our very own Sebastian Stafford-Bloor who said:
Chelsea have reached an agreement in principle to sign Borussia Dortmund winger Jamie Gittens.
The two clubs have reached an agreement over a deal, with the fee yet to be confirmed. The deal is set to be completed pending a medical.
The Athletic reported on June 7 that Chelsea had submitted an official proposal with Dortmund to sign Gittens and that the Premier League club agreed a seven-year contract with the forward.
However, Chelsea were not able to agree a deal with Dortmund before the transfer deadline ahead of the Club World Cup on June 10. Dortmund are also playing in the tournament in the United States with Gittens featuring as a substitute in the opening game against Fluminense.
Read more below
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Chelsea reach agreement in principle to sign Borussia Dortmund winger Jamie Gittens Getty Images
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
Unfortunately we still don't have any updates for you from Bank of America Stadium.
The players are still off the pitch and there are still warnings on the screens instructing fans to take shelter.
There were still stormy conditions around the stadium as recently as 20 minutes ago. The good news, however, is that two thirds of the pitch is bathed in sunshine, so here's hoping the storm has largely passed.
To pick apart the numbers and show Chelsea's performance in the game up to the weather stoppage, how about this stat: they had 58 per cent of the ball.
They also had 12 shots (six on target) to Benfica's three (one on target).
Most importantly, they turned it into a goal. That's the only stat that counts after all... now they need to see the game out once play resumes. Getty Images
Sam D.: How could all 100 fans possibly manage to take cover?
Daniel H.: Something something weather delay, you'll never sing that?
Timothy A.: What a farce this tournament is.
You can get involved by emailing us at [e-mail] or by joining the discussion page for this match here. Getty Images
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
Of all the players glad for the break, I suspect the fair-skinned Cole Palmer is right up there.
He was doing his best Kevin De Bruyne impression before the weather delay. And I don't necessarily mean copying his former team-mate's football — more just that he was getting progressively more red as the game wore on... Getty Images
While we continue to wait for the players to re-emerge at Bank of America Stadium, there is a nice piece of news for a few players involved in tonight's match for Chelsea — England's Under-21s have retained their European crown after beating Germany 3-2 after extra time in the final.
Levi Colwill, Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer were all part of the team who won it last time around in 2023.
Now a new generation gets to hold the title including one of Chelsea's own: goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe.
A product of their academy, Omari Hutchinson, scored in today's final, as did Liverpool's Harvey Elliott and Jonathan Rowe of Marseille. Getty Images
Normally it's hard to fit an entire stadium's worth of fans into the concourses during a weather delay, but it wasn't exactly a bumper crowd at Bank of America Stadium today to begin with. There's currently not a soul in sight.
With the match so close to being over, you have to wonder whether the majority of fans are hanging around to see the conclusion...
86' Benfica 0-1 Chelsea — weather delay
An unofficial update here, which isn't really an update at all. They had initially hoped to get the players back on to warm up at 6.25pm local time ahead of a resumption of play. But one of the FIFA officials tells me they were unable to get back on at 6.25pm.
Hopefully sooner rather than later...