Chelsea beat Benfica to reach FIFA Club World Cup quarterfinal

Chelsea bushed Benfica 1-0 to scope the quarterfinals of the FIFA Club World Cup.

Chelsea became the archetypal English broadside to scope the quarterfinals of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup pursuing a 4-1 triumph aft other clip against the 10-man Benfica successful North Carolina.

Reece James scored the opening extremity of the crippled successful the 64th infinitesimal connected Saturday, with a spectacular escaped footwear from a choky space connected the near wing.

Angel Di Maria levelled the lucifer successful the 5th infinitesimal of stoppage clip from the punishment spot aft a brushed handball determination against Malo Gusto.

Goals from Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and K Dewsbury-Hall restored and sealed Chelsea’s vantage successful other time.

It was the slightest the Blues deserved aft dominating the lucifer from commencement to finish.

The extremity was heavy delayed, however, erstwhile the players were removed from the tract of play astatine Bank Of America Stadium successful Charlotte by the referee owed to a adjacent lightning storm.

The hold was astir 2 hours successful length, contempt lone 4 minutes remaining of the lucifer erstwhile the players near the field. Chelsea’s players were visibly annoyed by the determination to halt the crippled truthful adjacent to the full-time whistle, and with triumph successful sight.

General presumption of players walking disconnected the transportation aft referee Slavko Vincic signals a upwind hold to the lucifer [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]

Unusually precocious temperatures for the clip of twelvemonth contributed to the inclement conditions. Both the origin and the effect are a interest up of the FIFA 2026 World Cup besides being staged by the United States adjacent summer.

It is the sixth clip a Club World Cup lucifer has been halted owed to atrocious weather.

Common nationalist information protocols successful the US mandate that outdoor sports events are suspended for astatine slightest 30 minutes erstwhile lightning is seen oregon thunder heard.

The Blues dominated the possession and the chances, the champion of which successful the archetypal fractional fell to Marc Cucurella whose curling effort from conscionable wrong the container was headed disconnected the enactment by by Benfica’s Antonio Silva astatine the backmost post, with the keeper good beaten.

Cole Palmer drew the finest prevention from Benfica’s Ukrainian keeper, Anatoliy Trubin, erstwhile helium was slipped into the container and powered a changeable astatine the adjacent post.

Trubin was near red-faced by the infinitesimal of magic from James to triumph the lucifer arsenic the wide subordinate drilled his effort successful astatine the adjacent post, with the keeper seemingly much acrophobic astir a imaginable cross.

Chelsea’s Reece James scores their archetypal extremity against Benfica [Mike Segar/Reuters]

Benfica’s leveller – aft the lightning hold – came aft Gusto near his arms flailing successful the aerial and, though soft, the Video Assistant Referee had small prime but to telephone the referee to reappraisal the decision. Di Maria coolly slotted location the resulting kick, contempt the stormy conditions that surrounded the stadium.

The comeback from Benfica, aft the dense hold to the match, was simply a further annoyance to Chelsea, whose occupation was made each the easier by a 2nd yellowish shown to Gianluca Prestianni.

The Benfica guardant was booked during the celebrations for his side’s equaliser and was past shown a 2nd yellowish for a precocious tackle aft lone 2 minutes of other time.

Palmeiras archetypal to publication CWC quarterfinal spot

Paulinho worked his mode betwixt a brace of defenders and rolled a changeable into the backmost of the nett successful other clip earlier connected Saturday to enactment Palmeiras into the quarterfinals with a 1-0 triumph implicit Brazilian league rival Botafogo.

Paulinho, who has made 1 quality for Brazil’s nationalist team, dribbled done the defence with an wrong chopped from the close helping successful the 100th minute. He past sent a left-footed changeable into the little near country of John’s net.

Botafogo created aggregate chances for an equalizer successful the last minutes but could not get a goal.

Palmeiras’s Paulinho scores their archetypal extremity [Lee Smith/Reuters]

The lucifer astatine Lincoln Financial Field was afloat of attacking play, with a combined 35 changeable attempts. Palmeiras, however, ended the lucifer with 10 men aft defender Gustavo Gomez was fixed a reddish card.

Gomez received a 2nd yellowish paper successful the 116th infinitesimal aft tackling Igor Jesus successful midfield to forestall Botafogo from starting a counterattack.

The 33,657 fans successful attendance helped acceptable the code for the lucifer with incessant cheering, bringing the flavour of a South American crippled to the United States.

“Coach has been saying this since the commencement of the play that we person a imagination and dreaming costs nothing,” Palmeiras defender Bruno Fuchs said after.

“We travel that dream, 1 crippled aft another. Always reasoning astir the present, astir the adjacent game… We’re precise happy, we’re pleased to person qualified, and arsenic I said, we person to support dreaming.”

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies