Chelsea beat Benfica 4-1 in the early hours of Sunday morning to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup.
Enzo Maresca‘s men were able to qualify for the next round thanks to goals from Reece James, Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
It was a really fiery affair that saw Gianluca Prestianni sent off before getting into a confrontation with Cole Palmer.
Maresca also found himself clashing with Benfica’s bench long before things started to explode on the pitch. The Chelsea manager was not happy with several things by the time the Club World Cup tie was finished.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca gets into argument over Marc Cucurella foul
Once again, one of Maresca’s key players, Marc Cucurella, found himself in the thick of things.
The full-back was a threat, almost scoring against Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin in the first half, while he also made a nuisance of himself with his tenacious defending.
However, there was one foul that Cucurella committed that the Benfica bench were unhappy about. Their complaints resulted in an argument with Maresca, which journalist Bobby Vincent spotted.
The Italian would have been really frustrated in the first half as Chelsea struggled to find a way past Trubin.
Chelsea have considered signing Trubin in the past, and the Ukrainian showed why until the goals he conceded to James and Nkunku.
Enzo Maresca labels latest Club World Cup tie a ‘joke’
Of course, the biggest talking point from the game was the two-hour delay following the bad weather in Charlotte.
Maresca was fuming after the match, telling reporters: “It’s a joke, it is not football. I understand the stoppage for safety but it is probably not the right place to do such a game of football.”
At least Chelsea managed to get the job done, which was expected after Maresca put out a strong team. It was first-choice goalkeeper Robert Sanchez who started in between the sticks at the Bank of America Stadium, for example.
Going forward, though, there is no guarantee that the Spaniard will be the Blues’ No.1. After failing to sign AC Milan star Mike Maignan, Chelsea could make a move for Marc-Andre ter Stegen of Barcelona.
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