Chelsea boss labels Club World Cup win over Benfica 'a joke' as he says the tournament 'is not football' after last-16 clash was suspended for nearly two hours due to lightning

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

A livid Enzo Maresca blasted Chelsea 's Club World Cup victory over Benfica as 'not football', 'not normal' and 'a joke' as he questioned the United States' suitability for hosting a major summer tournament – a year before FIFA bring the 2026 World Cup to America.
Maresca was furious with how in the 86th minute of their match, play was suspended for nearly two hours due to lightning striking nearby. It left the players twiddling their thumbs in the confines of the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte with scarce updates.
Chelsea had controlled this contest up until that stoppage. However, upon returning, they lost their 1-0 lead to a controversial penalty scored by Angel Di Maria after Malo Gusto was deemed to have handled the ball.
The Blues managed to go on to win 4-1 in the 30 minutes of extra time as Benfica had Gianluca Prestianni dismissed for a second yellow card.
While Maresca was keen to stress that he loves the Club World Cup as a competition, his statement on the number of suspensions being forced on fixtures due to storms was a damning look for FIFA and their president Gianni Infantino.
'For 85 minutes, we were in control of the game,' Maresca told a group of English reporters after their victory in Charlotte. 'We didn't concede nothing. We created enough chances to win the game. And then after the break, the game changed completely.
'For me personally, 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. If you suspend seven or eight games that means that probably is not the right place to do this competition.'
Chelsea will play Palmeiras in the Club World Cup's quarter finals in Philadelphia this Friday. That will see them face their incoming 18-year-old wonderkid, Estevao Willian.
Other games suspended due to storms in the United States have been Benfica versus Auckland City in Orlando, Ulsan versus Mamelodi Sundowns in Orlando, Red Bull Salzburg versus Pachuca in Cincinnati, Boca Juniors versus Auckland City in Nashville, and Palmeiras versus Al Ahly in New Jersey.
Chelsea travelled back to their Miami training base after this exhausting win in Charlotte and were fortunate that another suspension was not enforced in extra time, as FIFA bodies at the Bank of America Stadium were nervous that their weather trackers had spied a new storm arriving in the area.
Continuing, Maresca said: 'The problem is that when the game is suspended, it's not football. Guys, it's not football. You suspend the game, it's not football. It's completely something different.
'The game was very good for 85 minutes. Then we had a two-hour stop. Then it started completely different. It's not the same game. It's not the same game because you break the tempo.
'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. It's not normal. It's not football.
'I ask you, if in this competition, they already suspended six, seven, eight games, probably there is something that is not working well. Because in a football game, it's not normal to suspend a game.
'Please don't misunderstand me. It's a fantastic competition. It's a Club World Cup. It's top. We are happy to be in the last eight. But something happens, six, seven games suspended.
'It's not normal to suspend a game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero, probably. In Europe, how many games? Zero. We are here two weeks, they've already suspended six, seven games. There is some problem for me personally.
'How can you keep them two hours inside focused? It's a joke. Then we are happy. We are happy to be here. We are happy to be in this competition. But it's something that it's not normal.'