Chelsea will take on Benfica in the FIFA Club World Cup round of 16 on Saturday in Charlotte.
Benfica beat Bayern Munich for the first time in the Portuguese club’s history last night, meaning they have qualified as winners of Group C. Bruno Lage’s men will face the Blues after Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners against against Esperance at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Chelsea only needed to avoid defeat to the Tunisian side in the scorching heat in Pennsylvania in order to progress into the knockout stages of the revamped competition. Flamengo’s win against the Blues ensured the Brazilians have won Group D.
Should the Blues then progress into the last eight, then it will be against one of Botafogo or Palmeiras. That could be made even more interesting with Estevao Willian, the man who will join Chelsea once his participation in the Club World Cup is over, representing Palmeiras.
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The FIFA Club World Cup will see 32 of the world’s best club teams including Man City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich play across 63 games from June 14-July 13.
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Enzo Maresca and his squad have spent over a week in Philadelphia now but the heat is something difficult to get used to. On Monday, the Blues trained in 38 degrees Celsius, and that, to Maresca’s own admission, has made the preparation a bit more complicated.
“Tomorrow, we will do some rotation because the ones who played two games are quite tired to play again,” Maresca said on Monday. “So we will make rotation, and we will see if there is a chance for those who haven’t played as much.”
He continued: “It’s almost impossible to train a full session because of the weather. We are trying to save energy for the game; this morning’s session was very short, just plan for tomorrow, that’s it. No more than that.
“It’s not easy with these temperatures, but we will give our best tomorrow to get to the next stage of the competition.”
