{"id":155094,"date":"2025-06-29T04:25:55","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T04:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/how-chelsea-beat-10-man-benfica-in-extra-time-after-two-hour-club-world-cup-weather-delay-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T04:25:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T04:25:55","slug":"how-chelsea-beat-10-man-benfica-in-extra-time-after-two-hour-club-world-cup-weather-delay-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/how-chelsea-beat-10-man-benfica-in-extra-time-after-two-hour-club-world-cup-weather-delay-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chelsea beat 10-man Benfica in extra time after two-hour Club World Cup weather delay – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA Club World Cup
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Updated 13m ago<\/span>
Chelsea<\/a> have beaten 10-man Benfica 4-1 after extra time in a wild round of 16 match at the 2025 Club World Cup in Charlotte, North Carolina. <\/strong>
After Reece James<\/a> had given Chelsea a 1-0 lead with a goal from a direct free kick, the match was suspended in the 86th minute for nearly two hours due to severe weather in the area. Once the match resumed, Benfica miraculously equalised deep in stoppage time thanks to Angel Di Maria's goal from the penalty spot after VAR spotted a handball by Malo Gusto<\/a>.
The miracle ended there for Benfica, however, as Gianluca Prestianni was sent off for a second booking early in extra time. Chelsea retook the lead in the 108th minute as Christopher Nkunku<\/a> finished off a scruffy rebound, before Pedro Neto<\/a> and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall<\/a> added late goals to wrap things up.
Chelsea advance to the quarter-final to face Palmeiras on Friday.
GO FURTHER
Chelsea win extraordinary four-hour Club World Cup match delayed by severe weather and packed with drama
Here are the last-16 ties being played across Monday and Tuesday:
Monday<\/strong>
Tuesday
All times ET<\/em>
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Thanks to the two-hour delay to this match, it isn't long until we are back for more Club World Cup knockout action.
Join us again tomorrow for two more last-16 ties. Up first, it is the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner up against the European champions, who also happen to be his former club.
And then Flamengo look to cause another Club World Cup upset as they face Bayern Munich in Miami.
12pm<\/strong>
4pm <\/strong>
All times ET<\/em>
Two of Reece James' three goals in 2025 have been from direct free kicks, the other coming against Bournemouth in January.
Those are Chelsea's only two direct free-kick goals this calendar year.
Six more last-16 ties to come over the next three days, and then it's quarter-final time!
You can get the first one of those games in your calendar.
It is between today's pair of winners \u2014 Palmeiras and Chelsea \u2014 and it is at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The game will be played on Friday, July 4 at 9pm ET.
Two last-16 matches down, six to go!
Here is how the tournament bracket looks after the first day of knockout football.
Bobby K.:<\/strong> I planned on having a few beers watching the match tonight but because of the delay I am hammered. Long live weather delays.
Katherine R.: <\/strong>Doing things the hard way seems to be the MO of this team right now. Hopefully it will be character building for the future!!
Dfs2102: <\/strong>Great performance the whole game dominated deserved every goal. Great resilience. Benfica beat Bayern – this team is ready to compete again!
Richard A.: <\/strong>Caicedo is going to be missed next game.
Ali K.: <\/strong>Well have a great night people, or should I say morning 😂
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It didn't look like it would have taken much for Angel Di Maria to have cried in the closing moments of the game.
And that's for good reason \u2014 today marked the last time he has played for Benfica, the team he returned to 13 years after leaving for Real Madrid.
Fortunately for all of us that love football, the 37-year-old is not retiring just yet. He will return to one of his other former clubs, Rosario Central, for what will surely be the final chapter of his brilliant career.
Moises Caicedo, named Superior Player of the Match, also spoke to DAZN afterward, firstly about reacting to the long weather delay.
💬 \u201cWe were talking in the dressing room, the team was focused the whole game. I'm so happy because we did it.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
And then on the confidence within the squad.
\u201cWe believe (we can win the Club World Cup) because we know it's a tough tournament but the thing is working hard and doing well. At the end, we are going to see why we're here.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
If you're just joining us, firstly, welcome! And secondly, you are probably wondering why a game that kicked off at 4pm ET finished at 8:40pm.
Let me explain.
In the 86th minute of the game, with Chelsea leading 1-0, the players were taken off the field by the referee after he was informed that there had been lightning within a 10-mile radius of Bank of America Stadium.
As the storms continued, the players were not able to come back out onto the field and it was not until 7:48pm that it was deemed safe for them to continue. And then a Di Maria penalty sent the game to a 30-minute period of extra time.
The most chaotic match of the Club World Cup so far, by some distance.
It's fair to say that Maresca wasn't best pleased with the stoppage-time decision to award a very harsh penalty against Gusto \u2014 here is what he said to DAZN.
💬 \u201cThe problem is that it was not a foul. The penalty came from a free kick that wasn't a foul.<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cSometimes it's better if you don't say what you think about referee because overall today I think we deserved to win the game and better to talk about the team and not about the referee.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
As promised, here is what Maresca had to say in that post-match interview with DAZN.
💬 \u201c(I'm) very proud. The performance was top for 85 minutes until they stop the game and it's a completely different game. When you go inside, more than one hour, it's not easy. 1-1, we continue to play and at the end the reward is what we deserve. <\/em><\/strong>
\u201cWhen it's 85 minutes, five minutes to go, it's difficult but we try to keep them in the best way we could at that moment. In the end we are in the (last) eight teams in the competition and we are very happy.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
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Enzo Maresca just spoke to DAZN \u2013 we'll get his quotes in here very shortly \u2014 and looked as though this match has aged him by a few years.
He gave a few decent answers, including one saying that the free kick and penalty won by Benfica in stoppage time were not the right decisions. Above all else though, he looked like a man who just wanted to get back to his hotel.
The Italian went through the full spectrum of emotions this afternoon (and then evening) \u2014 I don't think he'll have any trouble getting to sleep later!
It pales into insignificance now that Chelsea have won, but they weren't happy with the penalty decision at the time.
Here is a look at the handball by Malo Gusto that gave Benfica a lifeline in the match.
The right call by the letter of the law, but very harsh if you ask me.
Enzo Maresca has certainly had his critics during his year at Chelsea, but you cannot knock the man's passion.
There was no one more pleased inside Bank of America than him when Nkunku made it 2-1 in the 108th minute. The Italian went racing down the touchline roaring in celebration.
I suspect he was panicking when Di Maria converted the stoppage-time penalty, so he will be breathing a huge sigh of relief right now.
One of the most arduous aspects of major tournament football is the lack of a proper gap between games.
There is, however, six days between now and Chelsea's quarter-final against Palmeiras and I'm sure Maresca and his players are very happy about that.
At some point, they will have to make the 500-mile journey between Charlotte and Philadelphia as they will be facing the Brazilians at Lincoln Financial Field.
For anyone just joining us thinking this game must have kicked off at 6pm ET, we started more than four and a half hours ago!
The game kicked off at 4pm ET with clear skies and sunshine over Bank of America Stadium and finished almost in the dark after two hours worth of stormy conditions that brought with them a very frustrating weather delay.
Then we were treated to extra time after Chelsea were stung by a stoppage-time Angel Di Maria penalty. And, in the end, it is the Premier League team who have prevailed and will continue their Club World Cup journey.
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FT Benfica 1-4 Chelsea<\/strong>
And there's the full-time whistle.
Chelsea will face Palmeiras in Philadelphia on Friday, July 4 in the first quarter-final of this Club World Cup.
120' Benfica 1-4 Chelsea<\/strong>
They have ultimately made this much harder than it should have been \u2014 not helped by the weather, of course \u2014 but Chelsea will play in the quarter-final at this Club World Cup.
And they will go into it with a bit of wind in their sails after this late flurry of goals.
The pick of the bunch was certainly Dewsbury-Hall's as he lifted a delicate chip into the bottom corner.
117' Benfica 1-4 Chelsea<\/strong>
Book those flights and hotels, Chelsea fans \u2014 you're going to the quarter-final!
Similarly to the third goal, Benfica overcommitted and they were picked off. Palmer slipped a perfectly weighted ball through to Dewsbury-Hall and he finished with a lovely chip over the onrushing Trubin.<\/p>\n

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FIFA Club World CupAdvertisementliveUpdated 13m agoChelsea have beaten 10-man Benfica 4-1 after extra time in a wild round of 16 match at the 2025 Club World Cup in Charlotte, North Carolina. After Reece James had given Chelsea a 1-0 lead with a goal from a direct free kick, the match was suspended in the 86th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}