US not right place for Club World Cup: Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca on match stoppage
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was left fuming and claimed that the US may not be the right place to host the Club World Cup after their game against Benfica was halted for close to two hours due to a weather incident. Chelsea were leading 1-0 with just five minutes of normal time remaining when the officials decided to call the players in due to a lightning strike. advertisementThe players were forced to keep themselves warm during the stoppage and when the game restarted, Benfica scored an equaliser, pushing the game into extra-time. The Blues won the match 4-1 but Maresca was unhappy with what had happened. Speaking to the reporters, as quoted by the Guardian, the Chelsea boss said that the game changed after the break and it wasn't football for him. Club World Cup: Full coverage
Maresca also said that if the tournament has already seen eight to nine games being suspended due to the weather, then US wasn't the ideal place for the tournament in the first place. 'For 85 minutes we were in control of the game,' Maresca said. 'After the break, the game changed completely. For me, it's not football. It's already seven, eight, nine games that they suspended. I think it's a joke to be honest, it's not football. It's not for us. You cannot be inside. I struggle to understand. I can understand that for security reasons, you suspend the game. But if you suspend seven, eight games, that means that probably [this] is not the right place to do this competition,' said Maresca. advertisementMaresca said that the two-hour stop broke the rhythm of his side as they were solid in the first 85 minutes. The Chelsea boss felt that his side's tempo was lost and the game restarted as a completely different one. 'We had an hour and a half, two-hour stop. Then it started completely different. It's not the same game because you break the tempo. So two hours inside; people speak with the family outside, if they were good, the security. People eating, people laughing, people talking on the mobile. It's two hours. That's why I said it's not football."'It's something that you struggle to understand. But we tried to go out, continue in the same way, knowing that it was difficult. It's not random that for 85 minutes, we didn't concede nothing. And then for five minutes, we conceded a few chances. Why? It's because it started a completely different game,' said Maresca. Club World Cup faces the heatThe Club World Cup has been facing weather-related issues during the course of the tournament. Storms have caused six games, all held in different cities, to be suspended. In addition to this the European teams were seen struggling to handle the heat and pitch conditions on offer. The likes of Luis Enrique and Jude Bellingham were unhappy with the playing conditions and made their feelings well known. - EndsTrending Reel
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