Chelsea book place in quarter-finals — 4hrs and 38mins after kick-off

Times

6 hours ago

A chaotic finish, for a chaotic match. Chelsea scrambled into the Club World Cup's quarter-finals after more than two hours of actual football, plus close on two hours of suspended football. Four hours and 38 minutes to complete, in all. There was lightning, there was VAR controversy, but ultimately they got over the line. Christopher Nkunku scored the goal that put Chelsea on the road to victory. It was that kind of game.
Has there ever been one quite like this? Not in the Club World Cup, not in any major competition if memory serves. To have the game suspended for so long due to adverse weather conditions, to have it resume under the pressure of a time window between storms, and then to have a Benfica equaliser scored in such controversial circumstances — a VAR decision that would never have been given in most domestic forms of the game — is surely unique.
Credit Chelsea then, for their three goals in the second half of extra time. Finally, they kept their heads, won a game they must have felt was already theirs. We'll get to that. First, the madness. There were five minutes remaining in normal time when the referee, Slavko Vincic, led the players off with lightning in the area and Chelsea in control and leading 1-0. And they did not return for close to two hours. There were several false starts. Predicted times to return scuppered by more lightning. Warm-ups aborted. And as the minutes ticked by so the advantage moved to Benfica.
There was almost an air of inevitability about the return. When referee Vincic — Slovenian, over-promoted — brought the teams back on, all the momentum was with the Portuguese. They had been poor to this point. Their best, their only, chance had come when the Chelsea goalkeeper, Robert Sánchez, misjudged a shot from Fredrik Aursnes. Yet here was a free hit. Bonus time. Had the game played out when it should have done, Chelsea would almost certainly have won. Yet Benfica now had nothing to lose. They had four minutes, plus injury time. When six additional minutes were signalled, it was almost as if drama was ordained.
Severe weather in the Charlotte area forced play to be suspended on the 86-minute mark for more than two hours…
FEDERICO PARRA/AFP
So it came. Nicolás Otamendi's header connected with a cross and clipped the extended arm of Malo Gusto. Natural position when jumping? Yes. The sort that gets given in the Premier League. Never. In Fifa competition: penalty. Vincic did not give it but was summoned by the VAR. The moment he jogged to the sidelines, everyone knew. Ángel Di María waited for Sánchez to commit and just slotted his penalty kick to the left. Welcome back, my friends, to the game that never ends.
And we can argue the ridiculousness of the situation, of having a tournament in a part of the United States so prone to electrical storms. We can judge the letter of the law and its many travesties, yet the fact remains that once again Chelsea did not pull clear given every opportunity. Chances were squandered — some by Marc Cucurella, playing an extremely attacking role — good positions wasted. Chelsea should have had this wrapped by half-time, by full-time, and certainly within four hours. Instead they went into extra time level, and up against it — even when Gianluca Prestianni was sent off not just for his foul on Levi Colwill but for the equally nasty reaction that followed.
What chaos. For Chelsea had been coasting. Their goal was a thing of beauty, too. Minute 62, Reece James sized up the simplest of passes down the flank and bunged it straight into touch. Minute 64, he gave Chelsea the lead with a free kick full of intelligence and class.
That's the thing with the best players. They aren't easily fazed, not easily knocked out of their stride. James had already forgotten that duffed pass when he scored. He had already alighted on a redeeming plan. He had spotted Benfica's goalkeeper, Anatoliy Trubin, in a poor position. Trubin was expecting a cross and, for this reason, had left too much room at his near post. He's 6ft 6in, mind, Trubin. It would need to be some special kick to beat him, no matter where he stood.
So James took a special free kick. James takes quite a few of them these days since his comeback from injury. One against Bournemouth on January 14 this year, another for England against Latvia in March. And now this. A special goal, a lucrative goal, given helped take Chelsea into the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. It was thought James could get lost in the various reshuffles of the Maresca era, squeezed out at full back, swamped by sheer numbers in central midfield. That's not going to happen now. He's a player. Chelsea need players. Not just vanloads of players. Proper ballers.
MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS
So James whipped in his free kick at the near post, Trubin scrambled unsuccessfully, and the game should have been won. It would have been no more than Chelsea deserved.
Ultimately, then, justice was done. As extra time spun out, so Chelsea's man advantage showed. Benfica were carved open, three times in nine minutes. Cole Palmer found Moisés Caicedo in the penalty area and his shot squirmed under Trubin towards the goalline. Otamendi first stopped Nkunku but could do no more as he turned the loose ball into the empty net, from a yard. Minutes later, Pedro Neto was left one on one from the halfway line, and made no mistake. For the fourth Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall did the same.
So this was a decent afternoon's work that turned into a good night. An eye-catching performance in parts, much improved on Chelsea's group stage form. They have still not hit the heights achieved by Manchester City but this is a team bedding in. Character-building, too. Get through this lunacy and who knows where it ends.
Benfica (4-2-3-1): A Trubin 8 — F Aursnes 6 (T Gouveia 86), A Silva 7, N Otamendi 5, S Dahl 5 — F Luis 6 (G Prestianni 70), L Barreiro 6, O Kokcu 6 (J Veloso 85) — V Pavlidis 6 (A Belotti 70), A Di Maria 7, A Schjelderup 5 (K Akturkoglu 46 6). Booked Kokcu, Luis, Pavlidis, Prestianni, Silva, Gouveia.
Sent off Prestianni.
Chelsea (4-2-2-2): R Sanchez 6 — R James 8 (M Gusto 80), B Badiashile 5 (T Adarabioyo 69), L Colwill 7 (A Anselmino 118), M Cucurella 7 — M Caicedo 8, R Lavia 6 (T Chalobah 85) — C Palmer 7, E Fernández 6 (K Dewsbury-Hall 81) — P Neto 7, L Delap 7 (C Nkunku 80). Booked M Caicedo. C Palmer.