Benfica 1 – 4 Chelsea

Chelsea moved into the quarterfinals of the Club World Cup with a remarkable prolongation victory against Benfica which presented a two -hour delay at the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte.

With the Enzo Maresca team leading 1-0 thanks to Reece James’ smart kick, the game was suspended in the 86th minute due to lightning near the stadium little followed.

When the game finally resumed two hours later, Benfica took the competition to extra time while Angel Di Maria converted his fourth penalty of the tournament to the fifth minute of the downtime after Malo Gusto was considered to have managed the box after a Var verification.

An extraordinary game took another twist while the substitute of Benfica, Gianluca Prestianni, was sent at the beginning of additional time for a second yellow card, allowing Chelsea to finally take control of the tie.

Christopher Nkunku presented Chelsea in front when he gathered at home nearby in the 108th minute, and they added other escape goals from Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to set up a quarter-final against Palmeiras on Saturday.

The meteorological suspension meant that there were four and a half hours between the kick -off and the final whistle and saw Chelsea and the Benfica players made the field while the fans were invited to look for a blanket in the stadium competitions.

The interruption made it the sixth game of the club World Cup to see a delay linked to the weather, Benfica in the front experienced for the second time after a two -hour delay assigned his group’s victory over Aukland City to Orlando.

Chelsea dominated the game overall and would have taken the lead earlier without some smart stops by Anatoliy Trubin, who denied Neto, Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella in normal times.

Cucurella also had an effort erased by the central defender of Benfica, Antonio Silva, but Chelsea finally pierced thanks to the rapid thought of James after spotting trubine out of position with his wide roof on the left.

This objective seemed to have put Chelsea on the verge of victory, Benfica carrying little threat as a force of attack, although their penalty after the meteorological suspension does not threaten the game on his head in front of the red card and the late Rafale of Chelsea.

Enzo Maresca started with the new signature of Liam Delap in advance while Nicolas Jackson served the second match of his suspension after his red card against Flamengo. There were also news from Chelsea reaching an agreement to sign Winger Jamie Gittens Borussia dortmund before the match.

But everything that was overshadowed by another suspension forced by the weather, which raises more questions to the organization of the club World Cup on the day of the former Liverpool boss Jurgen klopp Described as the “worst idea never implemented in football”.

In the end, however, it was clear that Chelsea cherished their victory, with the goal of Nkunku, and those of Neto and Dewsbury-Hall, causing wild celebrations while they were going through an exhausting test to keep their hopes of trophy alive.

Who then plays Chelsea?

Chélat will face the Brazilian team Palm trees In the last eight, start at 2 a.m. on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.