FIFA Club World Cup: Chelsea beats 10-man Benfica 4-1 to set up quarterfinal versus Palmeiras

Chelsea scored three times in the second period of Extra-Time to give 10-man Benfica a 4-1 defeat in Charlotte in their weather-hit last 16 Club World Cup collision on Saturday while the English side set up a quarter-final meeting with the Brazilian Palmeiras.

Christopher Nunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored in a spell of nine minutes to go through the side of Enzo Maresca after the teams were forced from the field for almost two hours because of a lightning storm.

Chelsea had taken the lead by Reece James in the 64th minute and after the teams returned to the field, Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni was sent to the injury for two minutes.

But Angel Di Maria scored three minutes later from the penalty place to take the game in extra time, from where Chelsea finally prevailed to set up the meeting with Palmeiras on Friday.

«Very proud, the performance for me was top up to 85 minutes when they stopped the game and it started a completely different game,» said Maresca.

«If you have arrived more than an hour, it is not easy, but 1-1 and then we continued to play and the reward was the one we deserved.»

Chelsea Captain James showed his set-piece Prowess to lead the Premier League side and broke the impasse in the 64th minute when he curled a sublime free kick home.

The match was stopped five minutes of the time due to a lightning storm near the Bank of America Stadium, activating the weather protocol and resulted in a break of almost two hours when teams and supporters from exposed areas were moved.

Upon returning the teams, Prestianni was sent seven minutes after the restart for a second bookable attack, but Benfica got hope when Di Maria scored from the penalty spot after Malo Gusto’s handball.

However, Chelsea made the most out of his one -man benefit in extra time.

Nunku put Chelsea back for three minutes in the second period when he lifted the ball over Nicolas Otamendi with an astute finish after Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Truin had blocked the first shot of Caicedo.

Six minutes later, Neto hit the third of Chelsea with a composed finish while racing on goal, found by Caicedo. Dewsbury-Hall completed the score in the 117th minute when he was released by Colmer in space.