Chelsea have made it through to the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup after a hard-fought and weather delayed match in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Chelsea were on the front foot early in their Club World Cup last 16 encounter with Benfica in the United States of America and pretty much dominated from start to finish.
The Blues were dominant in the first half with 62% of the possession and seven shots to Benfica's two. They could not make that dominance count, however, as they went into the break goalless with the Portuguese side.
But they broke the deadline midway through the second half with a clever Reece James free-kick. And that was to be enough to secure the victory, despite the game being halted for an hour with only four minutes left to play due to the threat of a thunderstorm in the area.
Chelsea knew who they would play in the quarter-final if they managed to pick up a win in Charlotte, North Carolina, with Palmeiras beating Botafogo in the first last 16 clash on Saturday.
Head coach Enzo Maresca would have been pleased with what he saw from him players, all except the end product, which is a pretty familiar feeling for the Blues, not just under Maresca, but Mauricio Pochettino before him.
There was one moment where Maresca was not happy, however. In fact, he was downright furious.
Chelsea had a number of players walking a suspension tightrope in the game with Benfica, knowing that if they picked up a second booking in the contest they would be out of the quarter-final with Palmeiras if they made it through.
Reece James, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Tosin Adarabioyo, Liam Delap and Pedro Neto were all on one booking already going into the game and it was a foul from one of those that had Maresca raging.
But the Chelsea boss was not raging at his player, he was furious with the Benfica bench.
As Cucurella tracked bck and fouled his man, the Benfica management team were all on their feet, calling for the Chelsea man to be booked.
Maresca was furious with the reaction from his opponents' bench and shwoed his displeasure to them, shouting at them and even having to be held back by the fourth official.
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