Well we made it to the end of the game eventually…🤦🏿‍♂️

A massive win for us as we progress into the quarter finals Definitely our best performance this tournament despite going into extra time.

Controlled the game and dominated in every phase of play and well deserved victory.

It could’ve even been way more if we were more prolific in front of goal.

Palmeiras and Estevao await in the last 8 for us early hours of Saturday.

Player Ratings:

Robert Sanchez – 6.5

Very quiet and not much to do, handling and distribution were good.

Reece James- 9 (MOTM👏)

Strong body shielding against the opposing winger and positionally very alert. Brilliant defending capped off with a smart and wonderful free kick. Certainly the stand out performer today in a big game!

Benoit Badiashile- 6

Strong defending at time but lapsed in concentration a couple of times which almost kicked started some attacks for Benfica. A brilliant recovery run and used his body well to put the striker off. Unfortunate to come off injured. Lets hope its nothing too serious

Levi Colwill- 7.5

A solid performance at the back, constantly getting better and better each week with his reading of the game defensively and far leas rash in his ball tackling. Ball playing has been the best it’s been in a while. Especially his short passing

Marc Cucurella- 7.5

Unlucky to commit questionable fouls when his aggression and tackling seemed like his normal self. Unlucky to not score from a right footed shot

Romeo Lavia- 7

Very aggressive in his tackling and dominating the battle and great passes through the lines

Moises Caicedo- 8

A standard dominating midfield performance. We never get bored of watching Caicedo break up play and his passion and desire on the pitch for us. That injury scare at the end of the first half was frightening, but god knows how he carried on

Cole Palmer- 6.5

Decent link up play overall with underlapping and allowing Cucurella to overlap causing a counter threat to Benfica. 2 great chances to score but solid goalkeeping and defending

Enzo Fernandez- 5.5

A lot of dog work for Enzo, trying to win battles and tried to link play from midfield to the wingers. Overall a bit wasteful in the final third and wasn’t involved as much compared to normal

Pedro Neto- 6.5

Kept extremely quiet, put in a few decent crosses but no impact unfortunately because Neto has arguably been Chelsea’s best performer in this tournament so far.

Work rate never a doubt, he’s helping out Reece as much as he can. A brilliant goal in extra time to seal the victory for us. Excited to see what more he can offer for us for the upcoming season

Liam Delap- 6

More positive signs we have signed the correct striker to take us to the next level. A menace on the pitch and never lets the CB’s settle

Subs:

Tosin- 6.5

Controlled phases of transition from defence to attack well and won a lot of duels to help ease any pressure. Gone under the radar again…

Malo Gusto- 2.5

Unlucky to give away the penalty for the benfica equaliser, shocking refereeing but Gusto still cannot seem to discover his old form.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall- 6.5

Looked energetic coming on and gave us the legs when needed. Well taken goal to secure us a healthy lead late on.

Chrisopher Nkunku- 5

Average overall but scored the decisive goal to take us to the quarter finals in a pressure moment, so we thank him for that!

Trevoh Chalobah- 6

Dealt with aerial threat well and closed down any attacks late on during extra time

Enzo Maresca- 7

Difficult to dissect the in game management due to the stoppage but Enzo picked our strongest 11 bar Badiashile which was a big call to make in a last 16 KO tie.

Poor game management during extra time. Overall, he’s managed to guide us to a quarter finals and has helped us carry momentum over from our bit conference league final win