Chelsea’s progress lost in the storm as chaos steals the limelight

The weather delay should not mask the standard of Chelsea’s performance against Benfica at the Club World Cup

American weather one, football nil. The chaos stole the limelight but it was a shame that the standard of Chelsea’s performance against Benfica on Saturday got lost in the storm. All anyone could talk about when a bonkers occasion finally came to an end, four hours and 38 minutes after it started, was the lightning. There was a lot of sitting around during the delay, a lot of wondering about the precise way it was going to go wrong for Chelsea when play resumed with 85min 30sec of normal time gone. Enzo Fernández missing the decisive kick during a penalty shootout? A catastrophic red card?

In the event it was left to VAR to drag it into extra time, an equaliser for Benfica arriving in the 95th minute when a penalty was awarded after Malo Gusto was punished for the kind of unavoidable handball that would no longer be pored over in the Premier League. A goal up when the weather gods took over at the Bank of America Stadium, now Chelsea had to show their mettle. How would they respond? The answer was resounding. Benfica collapsed, going down to 10 men early in extra time, and Chelsea were through to the last eight of the Club World Cup with three late goals from Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Continue reading...