Chelsea became the second 1/4-finalist of the Club World Cup, reported sportal.bg. "The Blues" defeated Benfica 4:1 in the battle between the two teams from the 1/8 finals at the "Bank of America" stadium in Charlotte.
The match offered a lot of emotions, especially at the end, as it was decided after extra time. Reece James gave the "Blues" the lead in the 64th minute, but in the 86th minute the match was interrupted due to an approaching thunderstorm. The two-hour break helped the Lisbon team to reach an equalizer and extra time. In the final minutes of the match, they were awarded a penalty, converted by Angel di Maria in the 90+5 minute.
However, in extra time, the Londoners imposed their will and scored three more goals, by Christopher Nkunku in the 108th minute, Pedro Neto in the 115th minute and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the 117th minute. Benfica, on the other hand, finished the match with 10 men on the pitch, after Gianluca Prestiani received a second yellow and red card in the 92nd minute.
Benfica came out with Evangelos Pavlidis as a forward and Andreas Schelderup, Orkun Kökçü and Angel di Maria behind him. Leandro Barreiro and Florentino were the supporting midfielders.
Chelsea, on the other hand, relied on Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto and Liam Delap in attack. In midfield, Enzo Fernandes, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia were active.
Chelsea started the match aggressively and within the first minute, Pedro Neto had the first accurate shot on goal by Anatoly Trubin, who, however, was careful and saved.
In the 12th minute, Benfica had a claim for a penalty after Sjølderup collapsed in the penalty area after a collision with Reece James, but the referee saw nothing wrong.
Chelsea, however, had another good opportunity in the 20th minute when Mark Cucurreia was left uncovered in the penalty area and shot towards goal, where Antonio Silva headed the ball on the goal line and prevented a sure goal.
Seconds later, Cole Palmer also broke into the penalty area and shot dangerously into the near corner, but Trubin made another important save.
In the 34th minute, Cole Palmer had a chance to shoot from long range, but his shot on the ground did not trouble Trubin.
In the 38th minute, Mark Cucurreia was again in a shooting position in the penalty area, but was again denied by a brilliant intervention by Anatoly Trubin.
The second half also started with pressure from the "Blues". Thus, Nicolas Otamendi almost scored an own goal when he tried to block a dangerous cross in front of the goal.
Then in the 49th minute, Moises Caicedo tried a shot from about 25 meters, which flew dangerously close to the right post, but was out.
In the 54th minute, Benoit Badiashil had also joined the front positions and shot at the goal from a difficult position, but without much success.
Benfica rarely reached any danger in front of Robert Sanchez. One of these almost happened in the 57th minute, when a tricky cross made it difficult for the goalkeeper, but he still intervened authoritatively.
Immediately after that, however, events moved again in front of the other goal, where Pedro Neto received a cross near the goal and tried to play an attractive volley, not far from the target.
Chelsea's pressure paid off in the 64th minute. Then Reece James executed a free kick in a wonderful way and surprised Trubin, who was clearly expecting a cross, scoring for 0:1.
One of the few chances for Benfica came in the 78th minute, when after a good counterattack Prestiani found himself in a good position in the penalty area, but sent a rather weak and disappointing shot wide of the goal.
A minute later, Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez tried to create problems for himself with a bad pass, which was intercepted by a Benfica player, but again a good finishing shot was missing.
In the 80th minute, Liam Delap scored a second goal for the English team, but it was quickly canceled due to the striker being offside.
Five minutes before the end of regular time, storm clouds appeared over the stadium and the hosts hurried to interrupt the match before the thunderstorm that had been expected since yesterday began. Strangely enough, the rain hadn't even started.
This turned out to be a key decision. The break lasted almost two hours, and in the final minutes, Benfica literally won a penalty in the 93rd minute out of nowhere. After an attempted header by Otamendi, the ball hit Malo Gusto's hand. The Chelsea player wasn't even looking in the direction of the ball, but despite this, referee Slavko Vinčić reviewed the situation with VAR and decided that it was still a violation and pointed to the penalty spot. Angel di Maria made no mistake with the penalty kick and equalized 1:1, sending the match into extra time.
However, they didn't start in the best way for the Portuguese. In the 92nd minute, Benfica was left with 10 men on the field. Gianluca Prestiani was late in a split-second and badly kicked an opponent player, for which he received a second yellow and a red card.
However, the "eagles" came close to scoring in the 96th minute, when they organized a dangerous counterattack that ended with a shot by Kerem Aktüroğlu, but in the hands of the goalkeeper.
In the 104th minute, Chelsea missed a great opportunity. Cole Palmer was brought down by Mark Cucurea around the penalty spot and fired an accurate, but not strong enough shot to trouble Trubin.
Immediately after that, Benfica also organized a dangerous attack, Di Maria feinted an opponent and shot on the ground, but he didn't particularly bother Robert Sanchez either.
In the 108th minute, Chelsea still managed to score a second goal. A shot by Moises Caicedo was saved by Trubin, but Christopher Nkunku ran and, despite the intervention of a defender, managed to put the ball into the goal from close range for 1:2.
In the 115th minute, Chelsea decided everything with a third goal. The Londoners organized a counterattack, Pedro Neto, who remained face to face with the goalkeeper, technically scored for 1:3.
Two minutes later, in a very similar way to the counterattack, Kieran Dewsbury-Hall finally put an end to the dispute, scoring for 1:4.
Thus, Chelsea is in the 1/4-finals, where they will have Palmeiras as their opponent in a repeat of the final of this tournament in 2021.