Chelsea overcome Benfica to reach Club World Cup quarters

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was left satisfied with his team’s victory but slammed the delay that turned the tie into a near five-hour marathon.

“I think it’s a joke, it’s not football,” Maresca said.

“For 85 minutes we were in control of the game. We created enough chances to win the game. Then after the break, the game changed — for me personally, it’s not football.”

Earlier, Chelsea had been seemingly poised for victory after Reece James’ opportunistic second-half free-kick had left them 1-0 up with four minutes of regulation time remaining.

But just as Chelsea began to think about their quarter-final assignment, the arrival of a storm over Charlotte triggered local safety protocols which required the game to be halted.

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It marked the sixth occasion during the Club World Cup that a game has been disrupted by a weather warning.

“If you are already suspending, six, seven, eight games it probably means there is something that is not working well,” Maresca said. “Because in a football game, it’s not normal to suspend the game.”

When play resumed just under two hours later, a revitalised Benfica grabbed an injury-time equaliser after Chelsea substitute Malo Gusto was adjudged to have handled in the penalty area following an intervention by the Video Assistant Referee.