Benfica vs Chelsea Review: Reece, Lightning & a dance to the QFs

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If Benfica needed a flash of inspiration, the heavens provided it. For 85 minutes, Chelsea’s dominance left The Eagles without the wings and only prayers. However, lightning strikes in Charlotte led to an interruption of an hour and 53 minutes. Captain Reece James said players stretched and worked on exercise bikes, put on some music; Enzo Maresca’s post-game mood, like Charlotte’s, was of a stormy disposition. “Two hours inside; people speak with the family outside… People eating, people laughing, people talking on the mobile,” he lamented. “It’s two hours. That’s why I said it’s not football.”

Maresca was right, of course. In 85 minutes, his side did not concede a single big chance. Angel Di Maria, limited to a solitary shot from the wing from 35-odd yards before the interruption, floated in a freekick to his fellow world cup winner Nicolas Otamendi, whose header struck Gusto’s hand. Di Maria stepped up to take it in the 95th minute, and just like that, a two-hour inconvenience was extended by another 30 minutes.

The Little Things

For Maresca, Benfica presented the ideal test of his side’s capability to go from a brisk walking pace in the UECL to the frequently lung-aching endeavours in the UCL. Balancing that with devising a plan for the new season is hard enough, but doing so while playing in a high-stakes competition is harder still. There are some hints as to what Maresca is thinking - accommodating three CMs in his side without having to put Caicedo at RB and offering his wingers a little more support.

After playing Palmer on the RW against Flamengo, here he was deployed on the left. This pushed Neto to his favoured right flank and also vacated the CAM position for Enzo Fernandez. Palmer’s outings on the left-wing haven’t always proved fruitful - his shooting angles are limited; the variety & quality of his passing ingenuity also seems greatly diminished without the ability to open up his body.

In this game though, Palmer provided the sparks well before the lightning did. There was some of the old magic, but a few polished new tricks too. He spent a lot of the first half positioned in the left half-space, waiting to receive the ball. But there were also glimpses of very encouraging off-ball movement. On one occasion he exploded inside his fullback and into the box, an out-to-in run that deserved someone of his craft and brilliance to pick him out. Ten times he popped up in the opposition box, nine times he crossed, some of them flashing past a vacant far post. There were six shots too, a number he hasn’t managed often when playing off the left.

More importantly, a lot of that good work came in tandem with Marc Cucurella’s support. 10 goal contributions last season made it hard to justify inverting or placing his FB in the backline, so Maresca did what all good managers do - adjust - with Badiashile moving from LCB to a LCB/LB hybrid and Reece James moving into RCB from RB. He almost provided an 11th with a firmly hit shot with his weaker right that was heading to the corner, but was cleared off the line by excellent Antonio Silva. This structure bodes quite well for the incoming Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund, who is likely to occupy the LW from the get go.

Second Wind

Benfica’s hopes of preserving that newfound momentum evaporated within the first two minutes of extra-time. Gianluca Prestianni went in for a nasty challenge on Colwill that could have easily been a straight red, but his 22 minute stay ended with a second yellow. To say the Blues dominated would be some understatement - in the first half of ET Chelsea had 90% of the ball; in the next 15 minutes they managed four times the big chances as the other 115 combined. Christopher Nkunku’s goal sparked pandemonium on the bench, by the time Neto and Dewsbury-Hall offered daylight Benfica barely had any fight left to muster.

Palmeiras who also had to grind out a victory in extra-time against Botafogo await in the QFs next, as does the prodigious Estêvão. Qualifying for the quarters pushed their CWC earnings close to the $40m mark as well, which would balloon further if they can exorcize the ghosts from the defeat against Flamengo in the group stage. Moises Caicedo, the Player of the Match in this one, will be suspended for the clash, which will present a new headache to Maresca - but for today, he can breathe easy and hope that lightning doesn’t strike twice.