2 days ago
Benfica v Chelsea: Club World Cup, last 16
Update:
Date: 2025-06-28T19:03:04.000Z
Title: The teams
Content: 1️⃣1️⃣ 𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟!#SLBCFC • #FIFACWC • #TakeItToTheWorld
Our XI to face SL Benfica! 👊📋
Update:
Date: 2025-06-28T19:00:31.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: If history is any guide, we might as well anoint Chelsea the winners of this tie right now and be done with it. The victors obvious. An early night. Let's go to bed. Because not only do Chelsea have a 100-percent record against Benfica, three wins out of three, the most notable of which being this Rafa-infused banger in 2013 …
… but there's the ghost of Béla Guttmann to consider as well. Benfica are famously doomed abroad, having denied their two-time winning European Cup manager a pay rise in 1962, forcing him to spit as he stormed out of the exit door: 'Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever win a European Cup!' Oh Béla. Oh Benfica. They've played eight major European finals since, one of them being the aforementioned Benitez-flavoured failure, and lost the lot. This isn't a club with the wind behind when it comes to tournaments like this.
But then, this is not Europe. So perhaps the Club World Cup is the perfect platform upon which to snap their miserable international run. And their tails will be up after beating Bayern Munich on Tuesday. Only problem is, upwardly mobile Chelsea are still high on life after their Conference League success, so will fancy their chances of making it four from four against the Eagles of Lisbon, one step closer to repeating their success in a tournament they first won just three years ago. Neither team is perfect, so this is set up nicely. Kick-off at the home of the Carolina Panthers is at 9pm UK time, 4pm local. It's on! Keep pounding!
