Benfica vs Chelsea

[ZAPHOD2319 4,803]

PRE/POST-MATCH DISCUSSION, LIVE CHAT AND ANALYSIS

 

Saturday 28th June 2025

Club World Cup
Bank of America Stadium
 9PM UK

[Vesper 30,119]

IF (massive if) Juve beats or draws with Citeh

we likely avoid

PSG (for sure)

Bayern (for sure)

Flamengo (for sure)

Citeh (see above)

Real Madrid (very likely we avoid them)

Borussia Dortmund (likely we avoid them)

and maybe even Inter Milan as well (if River Plate draws or beats them, and we may avoid even River Plate as well as Monterrey can win that group if Inter and RP draw)

until the final

[Vesper 30,119]

losing to Flamengo was the best thing I can recall for ages that came from a loss, due to the weird bracket and some upsets

[Special Juan 28,133]

The other best thing to happen was Jackson getting suspended, it's paved a pathway for Delap without Liam worrying about being hauled off for him.

Jackson is the architect of his own downfall and Delap will take this with both hands

[ZAPHOD2319 4,803]

Trying to avoid that heatwave in the mid Atlantic area that is setting record highs. I’m not motivated to do anything except get in the pool. I have my boat ready to go out fishing but it’s too hot to enjoy that. Mid Atlantic states are hitting 38+ degrees. (100+F)

 

 

[Vesper 30,119]

Chelsea, Angel Di Maria and the dangers of facing Benfica’s right flank at the Club World Cup

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6450174/2025/06/25/benfica-right-side-Chelsea-challenge-club-world-cup/

After Chelsea lost against Flamengo last week in the second of their three group games at the Club World Cup, head coach Enzo Maresca would have likely accepted a runners-up finish in Group D and started his preparation early to face the winners of Group C in the first knockout round.

Before Tuesday’s four games across those two pools, the team most likely to top Group C were Bayern Munich after back-to-back wins going into their match against Benfica. Instead, Bruno Lage’s men provided a resolute defensive performance in their 1-0 victory over the Germans to set up a last-16 clash with Chelsea on Saturday.

Benfica managed just 28 per cent possession against Bayern, but their right-sided efforts with and without the ball were a notable theme throughout the game, with the trio of Angel Di Maria, Fredrik Aursnes and Gianluca Prestianni operating excellently together.

As Maresca turns his attention to the Portuguese side, their right flank might be worth paying attention to.

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In truth, the goal against Bayern yesterday was painfully simple. An overload on the wing, and the ball crossed in for a box-crashing team-mate to finish. Yet it was the relationships between Benfica’s players that were notable.

The ever-versatile Aursnes — who typically operates as a midfielder — has performed excellently from right-back in the past two games, regularly overlapping and underlapping Di Maria, the 37-year-old former Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain right-winger.

That was the key to unlock Bayern’s defence, with a simple run on the outside seeing Aursnes target the penalty spot with his cross, for Andreas Schjelderup to arrive and finish first-time.

Bayern could hardly have been surprised, given that a near-identical move was on show in Benfica’s previous game, against Auckland City.

Here, after Prestianni’s simple lay-off to Di Maria, the 19-year-old darts into the half-space while Aursnes overlaps towards the byline. Aursnes’ delivery is exactly the same — pulling a ball back to the penalty spot; it is then retrieved by Nicolas Otamendi, who lays it off for Renato Sanches to finish from outside the box.

When he wasn’t overlapping yesterday, Aursnes used the few opportunities Benfica had to break forward to underlap Di Maria as the former Argentina international received the ball, dragging Bayern players with him and leaving his team-mate in a one-v-one situation.

It is a pattern that head coach Lage is keen to implement regularly. According to SkillCorner data, only five teams across Europe’s top seven leagues made more underlapping runs than Benfica’s 1.1 per 30 minutes in possession during the 2024-25 season.

So take note, Maresca, Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella — Benfica like to combine down their right channel.

With 43 per cent of their attacking touches coming along that vertical third of the pitch (fourth-highest share among all teams in the Club World Cup), you cannot say we didn’t warn you.

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Di Maria, Aursnes and Prestianni were also in sync out of possession against Bayern — particularly in the first half, which saw Vincent Kompany’s side fail to put a shot on target in the sweltering Charlotte, North Carolina, heat.

Benfica’s compact, low defensive block frustrated the German champions, with Aursnes providing an aggressive defensive display by stepping forward from right-back to snuff out attacks.

What was notable was how coherently his team-mates covered him when those jumps were made.

Here, Aursnes tracks Serge Gnabry as the latter drifts towards the touchline, creating a gap in Benfica’s defensive line. However, the Norway international is pointing to team-mate Prestianni to cover him and follow the run made between them by Bayern’s Raphael Guerreiro.

As the ball is circulated, it is Prestianni filling in at right-back as Aursnes shuffles back to his position.

Only seconds later, a similar sequence occurs. This time, it is Di Maria who dovetails with Aursnes’ jump forward onto Guerreiro, dropping in to track Gnabry’s run and similarly play temporarily at right-back.

The synchronicity between Benfica’s right-sided trio was impressive, although Bayern’s first-half performance meant much of the game was in front of the men from Lisbon.

If Chelsea are looking for clues on how they can expose that channel there in Charlotte at the weekend, off-ball runs from out to in might be their best bet.

Bayern switched things in the second half, with Leroy Sane moving to the left flank. His off-ball movement posed a greater threat to Aursnes, as he often stayed on the blind side and made diagonal runs in-behind.

Barely five minutes after the interval, Sane nearly got on the end of a through ball behind Aursnes, who was left flat-footed by his darting pace. Had the pass been weighted slightly better, this would be a clear opportunity on goal.

It was a clear tactic from Bayern in the second half, with Sane hugging the touchline and stretching Benfica’s back line whenever the ball was on the opposite side — again, out of the eyeline of Aursnes.

In truth, a lot of Bayern’s attacks came down their own right side in that second half, with Aursnes increasingly forced to track runners and deal with back-post crosses as Benfica retreated ever deeper as the match entered its closing stages.

But not before Sane had one final penetrating run from out-to-in, with a chance that he should have scored from.

With Aursnes’ aggressive positioning when Benfica were pushing higher, Bayern’s incisive passing saw Harry Kane receive the ball in the centre circle with runners ahead of him. Aursnes’ slide was not enough to stop the pass onto Sane’s stronger left foot as he ran in behind for a one-on-one with Anatoliy Trubin, who saved excellently.

With the game in front of them, Benfica’s coordinated defensive work was hugely impressive, their players fighting for each other and plugging gaps with metronomic timing.

However, Maresca will be encouraged to see that those wide areas are not impenetrable, if only his players stretch the pitch with purposeful running. With the pace, directness, and natural left-foot provided by Noni Madueke on the left of Chelsea’s attack, the 23-year-old England forward could use Sane’s second-half performance as a blueprint as he tries to unlock Lage’s defence.

“We know that they are a top club with a top manager and top players, and it is going to be tough,” Maresca said after beating ES Tunis 3-0 in their final Group D match to secure second place behind Flamengo. “But, like I said, we started in the first 32 teams and now we are trying to be in the final eight.”

With Saturday’s tie promising to be an interesting tactical contest, keep an eye out for the battle in wide areas — it could prove crucial.

[Vesper 30,119]

Chelsea’s Club World Cup campaign so far: What has worked… and what hasn’t

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6450186/2025/06/25/Chelsea-club-world-cup-group-stage-analysis/

Chelsea are into the round of 16 at the Club World Cup, with a tricky but feasible path to the semi-finals now ahead of them.

Convincing wins over Los Angeles FC of MLS and Esperance Sportive de Tunis (ES Tunis for short) from Tunisia ensured that Enzo Maresca’s team advanced from Group D, despite a disastrous performance in a 3-1 defeat against Brazil’s Flamengo in their second match of the three.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich’s surprise failure to top Group C means its winners, Benfica, will be Chelsea’s opponents in the round of 16 in Charlotte on Saturday, with a quarter-final against Brazilian sides Palmeiras or Botafogo as the prize.

That is a very good outcome from a mixed bag of a group stage for Chelsea.

Maresca has had some notable successes, but he also has problems to solve and some mistakes he should avoid repeating if this Club World Cup campaign is going to continue well into July.

Let us take a look at what worked and what didn’t in those opening three matches…

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Has worked: Maresca’s Plan A

Two of Chelsea’s three matches in Group D would not have looked out of place in their ultimately triumphant UEFA Conference League campaign earlier this season (in terms of difficulty, rather than geography). Both games were won with Maresca’s standard tactical system: a 4-2-3-1 that becomes a 3-box-3 in possession, with one full-back inverting into midfield and wingers pushing high and wide.

Maresca even picked a Conference League-like starting XI for Tuesday’s finale against ES Tunis. It does not tend to matter against this level of opposition; Chelsea’s defined structure and choreographed possession tend to ensure a base level of consistency and control against inferior opponents, who are often pinned back and pulled around until they make mistakes.

 

(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Both goals against LAFC on matchday one were created by the nominal No 9 receiving the ball and locating the smart runs of team-mates. The breakthrough last night was achieved in a different way, but the three goals, from Tosin Adarabioyo, Liam Delap and Tyrique George, were all scored in stoppage time of one half or the other after wearing down the Tunisians with long spells of possession.

Chelsea looked vulnerable on the counter-attack and when hit with more direct passes in that game against LAFC, but after some shaky early moments, they almost totally stifled ES Tunis’ attempts to exploit transition situations.

Maresca’s midfield dominated the ball and his attack, while rarely thrilling and less than overwhelming, created enough to win.

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Didn’t work: The Flamengo experiment

We may never know exactly why Maresca chose Chelsea’s hardest group game as the one to experiment with a significantly tweaked tactical approach, but the results against Flamengo were grim.

It was not a complete departure; Maresca still arrived at his 3-box-3 in possession, just with Malo Gusto overlapping on the right to allow Cole Palmer, nominally the right-winger, to move inside, while Reece James, picked to play in midfield alongside Moises Caicedo, dropped back into the defensive line to try to aid Chelsea’s passing build-up.

But the execution was clunky, the balance was off, and the Brazilians capitalised. From the early minutes, Flamengo successfully targeted the space behind the advanced Gusto and pressed James into some wayward passes, putting Chelsea on the back foot and controlling possession for long spells.

Palmer found it difficult to impact the game from the right flank, and despite taking a first-half lead, Chelsea’s attacking play was sporadic. That left them vulnerable to being punished for sloppy defending against high balls delivered into their penalty area, two of which were converted before Nicolas Jackson’s red card made it 11 against 10 for the final 20+ minutes.

 

(David Ramos/Getty Images)

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Has worked: Liam Delap

Chelsea’s big pre-Club World Cup signing has not performed like a player feeling his way in new surroundings.

Delap has looked confident at the point of Maresca’s attack from the moment he replaced Jackson as a second-half substitute against LAFC, laying on one goal with a pinpoint cross for Enzo Fernandez and almost making another happen from a long Robert Sanchez goal kick, just with his disruptive hustle.

Even against Flamengo, he was one of Chelsea’s better performers, racing through to bring one early save out of Agustin Rossi from a Fernandez pass and making his presence felt in a feisty, physical game — even if it did spill over with a shoulder charge on centre-back Leo Pereira shortly before half-time, which earned him a yellow card.

 

(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

It was no surprise to see Delap open his Chelsea account last night, though the manner in which he took his goal was particularly encouraging: controlling and advancing the ball in one motion with a deft touch from his thigh, chopping away from a defender and coolly side-footing into the net.

“We expected the process to be quick with Liam,” Maresca said of Delap, who had played under him in Manchester City’s academy system before a move to Ipswich Town last summer. “The reason why is because we know him and he knows us, with the way we play.”

Delap also kept his aggression in check against the north Africans, avoiding the booking that would have suspended him for the round of 16 meeting with Benfica — a scenario that did not bear thinking about for Maresca with Jackson already banned. As things are, Chelsea will go into the knockout phase with a striker who is up to speed and well in form.

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Hasn’t worked: Cole Palmer

Three matches into this Club World Cup campaign, that thrilling second half of the UEFA Conference League final victory against Real Betis remains arguably the only glimpse Chelsea supporters have had of peak Palmer in what’s been a difficult 2025 for the 23-year-old England international.

He was heavily involved in Chelsea’s attacking moves against LAFC without being decisive in the final third, instead mostly helping to progress and dictate the play from deeper positions. That said, he did have six shot attempts in that game, which is six more than he managed four days later against Flamengo, before being an unused substitute last night.

Maresca’s gambit of starting Palmer on the right and using the overlapping Gusto to move him infield simply did not work. Too often, it meant Chelsea struggled to get the ball to their best player; having touched the ball 71 times against LAFC, he managed just 32 against Flamengo, in almost exactly equivalent minutes on the pitch (84 vs LAFC, 82 vs Flamengo).

 

(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Ultimately, the most effective thing Maresca has done to revive Palmer might prove to be resting him entirely for the final group match. He played more than 3,000 minutes in the 2024-25 Premier League (the equivalent of more than 35 whole matches), and has looked jaded in mind as well as body in recent months.

Even those few days of being kept in reserve could help Palmer find the inspiration and the energy to lift Chelsea when it matters most, against Benfica and beyond.

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Has worked: Maresca’s squad rotation

Maresca made it clear from the outset that he would need to make use of his large squad when navigating the Club World Cup group stage, and he has delivered on his vow.

Over the three matches, 20 Chelsea players started (nobody has started all three) and 25 of the 28-strong squad made it onto the pitch, with Maresca making four changes to his starting XI from LAFC to Flamengo and eight more on Tuesday. “We have played every three days and with these conditions (the extreme heat in Philadelphia), we wanted to give time for rest and recovery,” he explained before that final game. “The ones that are out are also very tired.”

It was reasonable to question the selection approach between the first two matches — would Chelsea have faded so badly against Flamengo had Maresca not picked such a strong starting XI against LAFC, for example? — but the Italian correctly deduced the strength of team that would be needed to dominate and beat ES Tunis and so qualify from Group D.

 

(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Maresca’s rotating principle was to rely largely on last season’s core rather than this summer’s new additions (with the notable exception of Delap). That has been a source of great frustration among those who want to get a closer look at Andrey Santos at this tournament, though the Brazilian did get his first taste of action with 20-odd minutes from the bench on Tuesday.

In another world, Maresca’s rotation might have condemned Chelsea to facing Bayern in the round of 16, but circumstances outside their control have aligned more favourably than that.

They are into the knockout rounds and have made it there without placing an onerous workload on any of their most important players.

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Hasn’t worked: The left wing

Chelsea continue to be in something of a holding pattern on the left flank until a new winger — likely to be Jamie Gittens of Borussia Dortmund — arrives to fill the spot vacated by the suspended Mykhailo Mudryk and, more recently, departed Manchester United loanee Jadon Sancho.

Noni Madueke has been the sticking-plaster most regularly applied to that position and his aggression with the ball does at least ensure that opponents must always account for him. But being on that side limits his ability to drive infield and shoot, while the quality of his crossing has been inconsistent.

Pedro Neto has been Chelsea’s most impressive winger so far in the United States, scoring against LAFC and Flamengo. His best work at the tournament has been split between the flanks, but over a broader sample, it has become clear to everyone at the club that he is more effective operating from the right.

George is a more natural fit than Madueke or Neto on the left, but Maresca’s trust does not appear to extend to the 19-year-old starting big games quite yet, despite him coming off the bench to score a late third against ES Tunis with the aid of some awful goalkeeping.

 

 

Tyrique George has had game time at the Club World Cup, but does Maresca trust him? (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Chelsea are going to sign a left-winger at some point this summer, but until that happens, Maresca will continue to pick between sub-optimal options for the balance of his team during the Club World Cup.

[Fulham Broadway 17,305]

Won't be easy against them.

The winners are guaranteed to face a Brazilian opponent, either Palmeiras or Botafogo, in the quarter-finals.

[Special Juan 28,133]

Think we will have too much for them

[Vytis33 1,263]

Some really bold analysis from Enzo here 

 

 

[LAM09 7,043]

No more second chances. We need to go out with our best XI in their correct positions, aka. James at RB.

Pleased there won't be any debate on who is leading the line.

[nyikolajevics 2,690]

Rewatching Meireles and Ivanovic goal against Benfica bring back some good memories.. Hope Today we will see something memorable again.

I haven't watched a bit from CWC so far due to my work schedule, but Tonight is the night for me to come aboard, let's do it!!

[mkh 575]

Sanchez; James, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Lavia, Caicedo; Palmer, Fernandez, Neto; Delap. [@NizaarKinsella]

[Pizy 18,877]

Kind of impossible to tell what formation we’ll be playing with this XI until we kickoff. Could be any number of different setups.

Have Colwill & Badiashile ever partnered one another before? Both exclusively left sided, left footed players so I’m not sure how this is going to look.

[mkh 575]

The winners of Chelsea/Benfica will play Palmeiras