Key events
ET 5 min: Chelsea have been given a boost by that dismissal. They’re on top again, showing the energy that was sadly missing for them after the post-delay restart. Had they snapped around then like they’re doing now, their work for the evening would already be over.
ET 4 min: Things threaten to boil over at the award of the second yellow. Palmer is booked for getting involved in the brouhaha. The resulting free kick comes to nothing.
RED CARD: Prestianni (Benfica)
ET 2 min: Dewsbury-Hall works his way down the left and crosses. Otamandi hacks clear. The ball breaks to Chalobah, who is upended by Prestianni. It’s a second booking, and he’s off.
Chelsea get the first half of extra time underway. Quite a few of their players sporting a thousand-yard stare. They can’t believe they’ve let that slip. The penalty decision was fair enough; the free kick that led to it was pretty soft, mind.
FULL TIME: Benfica 1-1 Chelsea
Extra time it is, then! This is absurd. But will we beat the weather?
90 min +8: Akturkoglu makes good down the left and cuts back for Di Maria, whose first-time shot is blocked. Benfica with half a chance to snatch victory in the most outrageous of circumstances!
90 min +7: A cross from the Chelsea right finds Cucurella just to the left of the six-yard box. He can’t get a shot away, so cuts back for Caicedo, who screws an awful shot miles wide left. Chelsea look utterly shell-shocked.
90 min +6: Prestianni is booked for clipping Cucurella. Like he’ll care about that right now. What drama here!
GOAL! Benfica 1-1 Chelsea (Di Maria 90+5 pen)
Di Maria waits for Sanchez to commit himself, diving to his right. Di Maria slots straight down the middle, and the two-hour delay was worth the wait for Benfica!
Penalty for Benfica!
90 min +3: Otamendi had won a header just inside the box on the left, sending it back into the centre. Gusto was standing right next to him, half-turned, his arm in the air. The ball nicks off his hand, and the referee goes over to the screen. And it’s a penalty! Di Maria will have the chance to send this match into extra time!
90 min +1: Di Maria dances in from the right and draws a foul from a clumsy Caicedo. It’s soft, and he’s looking for it, but Caicedo was daft to give the referee a decision to make. Di Maria sends it into the mixer. The ball’s cleared by Cucurella, at which point Benfica surround the referee. They want a penalty. Has the ball pinged off Gusto’s arm?!
90 min: Prestianni probes down the right but loses control and the ball flies through to Sanchez, who once again does his work in methodical fashion. There will be six added minutes.
89 min: Akturkoglu is clipped by Tosin out on the Benfica left. A free kick. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Chelsea box. Akturkoglu takes the set piece himself, and it leads to a brief game of head tennis before the whistle goes for an offside. Sanchez in no rush to restart, as the clock ticks on.
87 min: Benfica are buzzing around. Fast. They’ve no time to waste. Chelsea with everything to lose.
The game restarts
… with Chelsea in possession. Chelsea have made a change, replacing Lavia with Chalobah.
They’re worried more weather will come in, so the warm-up has been curtailed. We’ll be off again in a minute. “A lightning delay couldn’t strike twice, could it?!” Peter Oh again, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the Bojangles Cajun Chicken Filet Biscuit Combo.
It looks like plenty of fans have hung around for the restart. And that restart is scheduled for 7.45pm local time … which is only a couple of minutes away. Here we go, then…?
Chelsea are back out on the pitch. They’re warming up. And here come Benfica, too. Light at the end of the tunnel? Fingers: keep ‘em crossed.
“They’re coming back soon,” reports our man at the ground Jacob Steinberg. So that’s good news, right? Well, yes, but it’s qualified. “There’s another weather system coming, so I think the decision is simply to try to get it done.” Potential fiasco ahoy!
Some social-media shots of those aforementioned frustrated Chelsea players, mid-fume. When this match finally restarts, should they let Benfica equalise, the black clouds that caused the delay will have nothing on the steam that’ll pour freely from their ears.
There’s a rainbow forming over the Bank of England Stadium. A promising sign? Nope. “We’ve just heard it won’t resume until further notice,” reports Jacob Steinberg. Hey, if you’re frustrated, just imagine how Chelsea are feeling.
DAZN are reporting that “hopefully the players can go back out in less than 20 minutes.” At which point, they’d warm up for 15 minutes, and then we’d get going again. They also report that “Chelsea are annoyed … Cole Palmer has come out and asked what’s going on.” They’re in the dressing room bouncing off the walls, playing keepie-uppie and taking turns on exercise bikes.
Jacob Steinberg reports another resetting of the clock, another delay. Nobody at the Bank of America Stadium is sure how long this might take to pass.
The clock has been reset again after more electrical activity in the area. So we’re another 30 minutes plus warm-up time away from the completion of this match. And there’s always the possibility of a Benfica equaliser, followed by extra time and penalties, so get burning that midnight oil. “Are we sure that last lightning struck the ground?” wonders Phil Rix, clutching at a large handful of straw. “Is there lightning VAR?”
Let’s while away this delay with a dip into the postbag. “I lived in North Carolina for twenty years,” begins Ben Furey. “Those southern storms are serious and are not like anything we see in the UK. I was flying once from NC to Dallas and the diversion around a storm took two-plus hours it was so big. A two-hour flight became four and a half hours.”
Meanwhile Gareth Rogers writes: “The weather delay in Nashville on Tuesday was fun. The Boca fans kept singing and chanting for 50 minutes. After they ignored the requests to go to the concourse, the stadium found someone to make the same plea in Spanish. The fans stopped singing for long enough to whistle and jeer the announcement and then started up again. A Boca fan sitting next to me said that most of these guys have been alone in Rio with limited police protection at Libertadores games, why would they be afraid of a little lightning?”
There’s been some more lightning, and the clock has reset. As things stand, this match won’t be restarting before midnight UK time. So while we wait, here’s some other Chelsea-flavoured news to whet the palate.
… but here’s more from Jacob, who is fast turning into the UK’s number-one sports-adjacent meteorologist. “Turns out the lightning has to hit the ground. A flash of lightning is OK!” So perhaps we’ll get going in 15 to 20 minutes after all? Let’s manage expectations: perhaps not. Still, fingers crossed.
Some more lightning in the Charlotte sky, according to Jacob Steinberg. Could be a long one, not least because once we’re good to go again, we also have to factor in ten minutes for the players to warm up.
Jacob Steinberg is at the Bank of America Stadium. “This probably won’t kick off for another hour at least,” he reports. “It’s a 30-minute delay – which resets if there’s another bolt in the next 30 minutes within a ten-mile radius. The stadium is now empty.”
Early reports suggest the storm might take 30 to 40 minutes to pass. So in the meantime …
Play suspended
87 min: Dark clouds gather over the stadium in Charlotte. The referee is told to take the players off the pitch and down the tunnel. The crowd aren’t happy, but they’re told to get themselves into the concourse as well.
86 min: Benfica make a double change, removing Aursnes and Kokcu and sending on Veloso and Gouveia.
85 min: Lavia spins Belotti and gets his legs swiped for the pleasure. Belotti should be booked, but gets away with it.
84 min: Everyone lines up on the edge of the Benfica box. Palmer swings the free kick into the mixer. Belotti gets shoved to the floor and that releases the pressure on the Portuguese.
83 min: Neto drops a shoulder and performs a stepover to diddle Kokcu down the right. The Benfica man hangs out a frustrated leg, catching his opponent and going into the book. He too will miss the quarter-final should Benfica manage to turn this around.
81 min: Chelsea make a triple change, replacing James, Fernandez and Delap with Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall and Nkunku.
79 min: Cucurella looks long down the inside left and releases Delap, who rounds Trubin on the outside and slots confidently from a tight angle. That’s a glorious finish, but it’s not going to count because he’s offside.
78 min: Aursnes knocks the ball past Cucurella down the right and romps into acres of space. He cuts back for Prestianni, entering the box down the channel. He’s got to work Sanchez at the very least, but slices a weak shot wide left. As the ball bobbles past the post, Prestianni puts his head in his hands, as well he might. A huge chance for Benfica to equalise and force extra time.
76 min: Benfica are trying to pick up the pace, but their moves are repeatedly breaking down in the final third. Chelsea looking pretty comfortable. “Bojangles is the best,” begins Beau Dure’s number to the choir. “I’ve been on the board of my college newspaper for eight years, and that always gave me an excuse to go to Bojangles, Cook Out and perhaps a full-fledged BBQ place. I’ve rotated off the board, which is bad for my palate but great for my waistline.”
74 min: The game restarts. Fernandez bursts down the middle and has Delap to his left, with Benfica short at the back. But he takes too long to decide whether to shoot or pass, and eventually does neither before Silva takes the ball off him.
72 min: Time for a Cooling Break (© Fifa 2025). The chaps migrate to the touchline for some tasty fluid.
