Chelsea face off against Esperance later this week in their final match of Group D. In order to progress into the knockout stages of the FIFA Club World Cup, the Blues just need to avoid defeat against the Tunisian side in Philadelphia.
However, Enzo Maresca will have to do that without Nicolas Jackson, who was shown a straight red card minutes after coming on the pitch in the 3-1 defeat to Flamengo on Friday. Jackson went in high on Ayrton Lucas and the referee showed no hesitation whatsoever in handing the 24-year-old a red card.
The Senegal international will now miss the Esperance game later this week and could be given further games to serve a suspension for, with FIFA investigating every straight red card in the tournament. That is it on the suspension front for the Blues, but there are six other players who will be banned for one match should they receive another yellow card.
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Club World Cup on DAZN
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The FIFA Club World Cup will see 32 of the world's best club teams including Man City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG andBayern Munich play across 63 games from June 14-July 13.
Fans can watch every match live and for free by signing up to DAZN.
FIFA rules state: "No player or official will carry a yellow card into the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. Any player or official given a yellow card in two different games will miss their team's subsequent match. Yellow cards will be wiped after the quarter-finals. If, during the quarter-finals, a player or official is booked for the second match at the tournament, he will be suspended for the semi-final."
In the win against Los Angeles FC last week, Marc Cucurella, Reece James and Tosin Adarabioyo were all cautioned, while Moises Caicedo, Pedro Neto and Liam Delap were shown yellow cards in the Flamengo loss. If any of them were to pick up a booking, then they would miss the round of 16 match - if Chelsea were to progress, of course.
If the Blues were to get through, they would qualify in second-place in Group D, meaning they would take on the winners of Group C in the round of 16 in Charlotte. As it stands, Bayern Munich are the leaders having won both of their matches, but the German champions face Benfica in their final match (8pm kick-off - UK time - on Tuesday evening). If the Portuguese side were to win, then they would be Chelsea's potential opponents in Charlotte.