FIFA Club World Cup
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Chelsea have beaten Palmeiras to book their Club World Cup semi-final place.
Cole Palmer opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a well-taken finish but he was upstaged in the second half. Estevao, who will join Chelsea after this tournament, scored a superb equaliser to bring the Brazilians back into the game.
With the game seemingly headed for extra time, the Premier League side retook the lead as Malo Gusto's cross took two deflections on its way into the net.
Chelsea will face Fluminense in Tuesday's semi-final.
GO FURTHER
Palmeiras 1 Chelsea 2 – Enzo Maresca’s side claim hard-earned win to reach semis
Our final two quarter-finals are scheduled for Saturday:
And with today's results, we're also set for the first semi-final on Tuesday:
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It has been a good few weeks for Enzo Maresca since the end of a stressful season. He landed the first trophy of his senior managerial career in the Conference League and now he has led Chelsea to the Club World Cup semi-final. Here is what he said to DAZN after the match.
💬 “It was a tough game as we expected. We needed a lot of energy because we are at the end of our season and they are at the beginning. I want to congratulate the players because they were very good.”
Enzo Maresca will have to cope without a couple of his starters for Tuesday's semi-final.
Liam Delap needlessly picked up his second yellow card of the tournament for a first-half elbow while Levi Colwill faced the same punishment for a mistimed second-half challenge.
They are both suspended for the semi-final against Fluminense, although Chelsea will have Moises Caicedo available again after he served his one-game ban this evening.
Samuel N.: In the end a Chelsea player scored for Palmeiras and a Palmeiras player scored for Chelsea. Fairs 😄
Leo G.: Really important win. A lot of the players on these teams would probably want some extra time off, but for Chelsea, with a very young roster that desperately needs time to build chemistry, having extra high-intensity matches at a competitive level that could mean they “really have won everything” represents a massive luxury for young players growing up together fast. And they can pay off that 30m fine so that doesn’t hurt either.
Justin H.: Really good performance, much the better team overall. Started the second half a bit sloppily giving away some needless fouls, but we responded well to their equaliser and took the initiative back.
Cole Palmer shared a moment with Estevao at full time ahead of the 18-year-old joining Chelsea.
The England midfielder seems to be looking forward to linking up with him.
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Estevao impressed while playing against his future team tonight, scoring a stunning goal from a tight angle.
Doing so at the age of just 18 years and 71 days, he's the second-youngest goalscorer at this tournament, older than only Porto's Rodrigo Mora, who was 18 years, 49 days when he scored against Al Ahly in the group stage.
Estevao has also become the second-youngest Brazilian to score at the Club World Cup. Alexandre Pato holds the record at 17 years and 102 days old.
Questions were asked for a long time after Enzo Fernandez made the big-money switch to Chelsea, but he is starting to look at home in Enzo Maresca's side.
He did a bit of everything tonight and turned in a real captain's performance.
With his goal in the first half, Cole Palmer became the 10th Englishman to score a goal at this year's Club World Cup. Six of those 10 have scored for Chelsea.
Chelsea's victory tonight means that they will have faced three of the four Brazilian teams at this Club World Cup.
They were beaten by Flamengo in the group stage in a defeat that actually helped them move into the more favourable side of the draw. Tonight, they have beaten Palmeiras and their reward is a semi-final meeting with Fluminense.
The Brazilians are putting up a real fight at this tournament, so Tuesday's semi-final will be another tough test for Enzo Maresca and his players.
It may have been a cruel pair of deflections that ultimately lifted Chelsea past Palmeiras, but when you assess the match stats, you can only draw the conclusion that Chelsea made their own luck in this situation by creating more chances overall.
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One deflection would be bad enough, but to be eliminated because of a double deflection is going to really sting for these Palmeiras players.
Ultimately, Weverton should have better in dealing with the deflected cross but he had anticipated the initial ball so was off balance when it took a nick off Giay.
Palmeiras have shown so much heart in this tournament, so it feels so cruel that this is how they have gone out.
FT Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea
It's all over in Philadelphia! A win for the English on U.S. Independence Day.
Chelsea advance to the semi-final and will face another Brazilian team, Fluminense, on Tuesday in New Jersey.
90+3' Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea
Chelsea are not only succeeding in keeping the ball in Palmeiras's half, but now they've nearly scored. Weverton pushes a Madueke shot onto the post, keeping the deficit to one but conceding a corner.
90+1' Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea
Four minutes are added on to the end of the second half. Four minutes for Palmeiras to rescue their Club World Cup hopes.
Chelsea make the final sub of the match (unless we go to extra time), bringing Dario Essugo on for Andrey Santos.
87' Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea
Each side make another sub. Palmeiras bring Raphael Veiga on for Richard Ríos, while Chelsea bring Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on in place of Pedro Neto.
Meanwhile, Colwill commits a bad foul and picks up a booking, which means that he's suspended for the semi-final should Chelsea advance.
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85' Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea
Pedro nearly has his first goal for Chelsea but Fuchs does just enough with a last-ditch tackle to put him off.
Seconds later at the other end, Paulinho nearly scores at the far post despite having multiple defenders between him and the goal.
83' Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea
Chelsea have retaken the lead with just minutes left! Gusto hits a cross from close range that takes a big deflection off Giay and completely wrongfoots Weverton.
It goes down as a Weverton own goal as the ball touched him on its way in.
82' Palmeiras 1-1 Chelsea
Madueke has an opportunity to go down in the Palmeiras box under contact from Giay but opts to stay on his feet. His decision is not rewarded as he loses control of the ball past the byline.
Moments later at the other end of the pitch, Estevao breaks down the right side but his weak cross can't connect with a team-mate in the box.