Key events
Enzo Maresca speaks to DAZN. “Very proud … the performance was top until 85 minutes … the start was a completely different game … when you are inside more than one hour it is not easy … but at 1-1 we continued to play … it was very difficult … we tried to keep them in the best way we could … we are in the last eight and we are happy … the free kick before the penalty was not a foul … it is better not to talk about the referee … we need to recover our energy and go again.”
Moises Caicedo has been named Superior Player of the Match. It’s not all good news for the Chelsea midfielder though: he’ll miss the quarter final against Palmeiras after picking up a yellow card tonight.
Chelsea celebrate their hard-fought, long-awaited victory. They thoroughly deserved it over the piece, only coming off second best during the almost psychedelic ten-minute period at the end of regulation time after the weather delay. They were the better team before the enforced break, and the best in extra time too. The last period of extra time was one step too far from Angel Di Maria, who was swept off the ball for Chelsea’s game-clinching third goal, and whose career at Benfica comes to a close with defeat tonight. Chelsea will play Palmeiras in the quarters in Philadelphia late next Friday.
EXTRA TIME, FULL TIME: Benfica 1-4 Chelsea
Four hours and 39 minutes after kick-off, we have ourselves a result! Chelsea are in the quarter-finals.
ET 30 min +1: … though he’s still on point enough to give Gouveia a yellow card for one last foul.
ET 30 min: A cross into the Benfica box from the right. Dewsbury-Hall prepares to bring it down, and is shoved unceremoniously in the back by Gouveia. Had this match still been level, a penalty would surely have been awarded. But here we are, so the ref lets it slide. Benfica have suffered enough. There will be one added minute.
ET 28 min: Colwill is replaced by Anselmino.
GOAL! Benfica 1-4 Chelsea (Dewsbury-Hall 117)
From the Benfica corner, Sanchez plucks Silva’s header from the sky. He blooters long, looking for Nkunku, alone on the halfway line. He brings the ball down – he can’t be offside, just in his own half – and lays off to Palmer, who sends Dewsbury-Hall clear down the middle. He dinks, he scores. It’s over!
ET 26 min: Veloso crosses long from the right, forcing Tosin to turn out for a corner. From which …
GOAL! Benfica 1-3 Chelsea (Neto 114)
Di Maria is crowded off the ball in the centre circle. The ball’s instantly shifted to Neto, who tears clear down the inside-right channel. He enters the box, waits for Trubin to commit himself, opens his body, and curls confidently across the keeper and into the left-hand side of the net. So cool under the circumstances! Chelsea with one foot and four toes in the quarters!
ET 23 min: Chelsea try their best to slow things down with some sterile domination in the middle of the park. Smart play, using their extra man.
ET 22 min: Veloso sashays down the right and hits a low shot-cum-cross that Tosin is forced to slice over his own bar. Sanchez claims Di Maria’s corner. This is far from over.
ET 20 min: The Chelsea bench emptied to celebrate that goal. A lot of relief. Joy too, but given the way this match has gone since the delay, mainly relief. Can they hold on this time?
GOAL! Benfica 1-2 Chelsea (Nkunku 108)
Caicedo breaks into the Chelsea box down the left channel. He shoots low and hard towards the bottom left. Trubin parries but spills. The ball squirts towards the bottom-right corner. Nkunku can’t force home from a couple of yards, with Otamendi sliding in to block. But he spins around to meet the rebound, swivelling and roofing over the prone Otamendi and in!
ET 17 min: Cucurella drives down the left and wins a corner. Chelsea play it short, and Chalobah, in the middle, fumes. But the ball eventually comes into the box, and Nkunku touched on the shoulder by Dahl. He goes over and wants a penalty. He’s not getting one. But it doesn’t matter, because …
Benfica get the second half of extra time underway. No hanging around at the turnaround, with everyone hoping to get this wrapped up before the next wave of weather.
EXTRA TIME, HALF TIME: Benfica 1-1 Chelsea
We’re closing in on penalty kicks.
ET 15 min: There will be one additional minute to this first period of extra time.
ET 14 min: Some space for Cucurella down the left. He should advance towards the box, but he’s no doubt exhausted, mentally as well as physically, and he cuts back instead, to nobody in particular. But the ball’s deflected out for a corner, from which Palmer rasps a shot straight at Trubin, who parries. Benfica counter, and Di Maria cuts in from the right, aiming a curler towards the far corner. Sanchez reads the intent. This is wild.
ET 12 min: Belotti is skittled by Colwill, and he’s the latest to go into the book. A fair chance this won’t end with 21 players still on the pitch.
ET 10 min: Di Maria and Belotti try to combine down the inside-right channel, with Chelsea once again short in defence, but over-elaborate. There’s a gloriously manic feel to this match now, almost as though all that electrical activity has messed with the receptors in everyone’s noggin.
ET 8 min: Neto crosses from the right. Dewsbury-Hall is lurking but Trubin comes off his line to claim.
ET 7 min: Gusto has a whack from distance but that one’s straight at the keeper as well.
ET 6 min: Belotti bombs down the middle of the park and slips the ball wide left to Akturkoglu, with Chelsea light at the back. Akturkoglu slams his shot straight at Sanchez.
ET 5 min: Chelsea have been given a boost by that dismissal. They’re on top again, showing the energy that was sadly missing for them after the post-delay restart. Had they snapped around then like they’re doing now, their work for the evening would already be over.
ET 4 min: Things threaten to boil over at the award of the second yellow. Palmer is booked for getting involved in the brouhaha. The resulting free kick comes to nothing.
RED CARD: Prestianni (Benfica)
ET 2 min: Dewsbury-Hall works his way down the left and crosses. Otamandi hacks clear. The ball breaks to Colwill, who is upended by Prestianni’s crude lunge. It’s a second booking, and he’s off.
Chelsea get the first half of extra time underway. Quite a few of their players sporting a thousand-yard stare. They can’t believe they’ve let that slip. The penalty decision was fair enough; the free kick that led to it was pretty soft, mind.
FULL TIME: Benfica 1-1 Chelsea
Extra time it is, then! This is absurd. But will we beat the weather?
90 min +8: Akturkoglu makes good down the left and cuts back for Di Maria, whose first-time shot is blocked. Benfica with half a chance to snatch victory in the most outrageous of circumstances!
90 min +7: A cross from the Chelsea right finds Cucurella just to the left of the six-yard box. He can’t get a shot away, so cuts back for Caicedo, who screws an awful shot miles wide left. Chelsea look utterly shell-shocked.
90 min +6: Prestianni is booked for clipping Cucurella. Like he’ll care about that right now. What drama here!
GOAL! Benfica 1-1 Chelsea (Di Maria 90+5 pen)
Di Maria waits for Sanchez to commit himself, diving to his right. Di Maria slots straight down the middle, and the two-hour delay was worth the wait for Benfica!
Penalty for Benfica!
90 min +3: Otamendi had won a header just inside the box on the left, sending it back into the centre. Gusto was standing right next to him, half-turned, his arm in the air. The ball nicks off his hand, and the referee goes over to the screen. And it’s a penalty! Di Maria will have the chance to send this match into extra time!
90 min +1: Di Maria dances in from the right and draws a foul from a clumsy Caicedo. It’s soft, and he’s looking for it, but Caicedo was daft to give the referee a decision to make. Di Maria sends it into the mixer. The ball’s cleared by Cucurella, at which point Benfica surround the referee. They want a penalty. Has the ball pinged off Gusto’s arm?!
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