Key occasions
The prize on provide tonight is a quarter-final tie with Palmeiras in Philadelphia subsequent Friday. Palmeiras received an epic stand-off with fellow Brazilians Botafogo earlier this afternoon; Rob Smyth tells that story within the time-honoured minute-by-minute type.
Chelsea make seven modifications to the crew that began the simple win over Espérance Tunis. Robert Sánchez, Marc Cucurella, Levi Colwill, Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer, Moisés Caicedo and captain Reece James are again; Filip Jörgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor, Josh Acheampong, Malo Gusto, Noni Madueke and Christopher Nkunku drop to the bench. Enzo Fernández, Roméo Lavia, Benoît Badiashile and Liam Delap are the one gamers to stay within the beginning XI. There, that’s everybody talked about.
Benfica make simply two modifications after their 1-0 win over Bayern Munich. Orkun Kökçü and Florentino change Gianluca Prestianni and Renato Sanches, who drop to the bench. Their beginning line-up contains a few Premier League outdated boys within the form of Nicolas Otamendi and Angel Di Maria, as soon as of Manchesters Metropolis and United respectively, whereas they’re managed by former Wolves boss Bruno Lage.
The groups
Benfica: Trubin, Aursnes, Dahl, Antonio Silva, Otamendi, Florentino, Barreiro, Kokcu, Pavlidis, Di Maria, Schjelderup.
Subs: Ferreira, Carreras, Bajrami, Wynder, Santos, Oliveira, Prioste, Rego, Veloso, Luis, Bruma, Belotti, Akturkoglu, Gouveia, Prestianni.
Chelsea: Sanchez, James, Cucurella, Badiashile, Colwill, Caicedo, Palmer, Lavia, Fernandez, Pedro Neto, Delap.
Subs: Slonina, Penders, Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Gusto, Sarr, Anselmino, Acheampong, Dewsbury-Corridor, Essugo, Santos, Nkunku, Madueke, Guiu, George.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
Preamble
If historical past is any information, we’d as properly anoint Chelsea the winners of this tie proper now and be completed with it. The victors apparent. An early night time. Let’s go to mattress. As a result of not solely do Chelsea have a 100-percent file in opposition to Benfica, three wins out of three, essentially the most notable of which being this Rafa-infused banger in 2013 …
… however there’s the ghost of Béla Guttmann to think about as properly. Benfica are famously doomed overseas, having denied their two-time successful European Cup supervisor a pay rise in 1962, forcing him to spit as he stormed out of the exit door: “Not in 100 years from now will Benfica ever win a European Cup!” Oh Béla. Oh Benfica. They’ve performed eight main European finals since, one in all them being the aforementioned Benitez-flavoured failure, and misplaced the lot. This isn’t a membership with the wind behind with regards to tournaments like this.
However then, this isn’t Europe. So maybe the Membership World Cup is the proper platform upon which to snap their depressing worldwide run. And their tails shall be up after beating Bayern Munich on Tuesday. Solely downside is, upwardly cellular Chelsea are nonetheless excessive on life after their Convention League success, so will fancy their possibilities of making it 4 from 4 in opposition to the Eagles of Lisbon, one step nearer to repeating their success in a match they first received simply three years in the past. Neither crew is ideal, so that is arrange properly. Kick-off on the dwelling of the Carolina Panthers is at 9pm UK time, 4pm native. It’s on! Preserve pounding!
