When the Club World Cup groups were announced, the smart money was on these two teams meeting in the Round of 16 out of Groups C and D. We got here in a slightly roundabout way, with Chelsea underperforming and finishing runners-up to Flamengo and Benfica overperforming and surprisingly winning their group ahead of Bayern Munich, but we got here just the same. You might say we got a bit lucky, though of course Benfica aren’t exactly cupcakes.
They lost just a handful of games all season, finishing second in the league and reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League. They did lose the (FA) Cup final to Sporting CP last month but have steadily improved across their three games at the Club World Cup, beating Bayern, 1-0 on the last matchday to advance as group-winners.
Chelsea will have to be at our best to advance to the quarterfinals.
Date / Time: Saturday, June 28, 2025, 21.00 BST; 4pm EDT; 1:30am IST (next day)
Venue: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC, USA
Forecast: hot and humid, chance of a game-disrupting thunderstorm, as per usual
Referee: Slavko Vinčić, with VAR
On TV: none (UK); none (USA); none (India); SuperSport Premier League (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: DAZN (int’l)
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Photo by Grant Halverson – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
Benfica team news: It’s rare that a season would pass without silverware at Benfica, and that was true even this year, as they beat Sporting in the final of the other domestic cup, their League Cup equivalent, back in January.
Keys to their success all season have been the goals of Vangelis Pavlidis (only Viktor Gyökeres scored more in the league), the veteran leadership of Ángel Di María and Nicolás Otamendi (who just signed a new contract), and the play of young goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin. Trubin was the “Superior Player of the Match” in their win against Bayern, and it was more than deserved. Pavlidis has yet to score in this tournament, so he’s probably due.
Their only injury of note is midfielder Florentino Luís, who got hurt in the opening match against Boca Juniors. Backup striker Andrea Belotti, whose goalscoring and thus career has taken a drastic downturn in the last few years, returns from suspension.
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Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images
Chelsea team news: Some have taken to calling this The Enzo Derby, as our midfielder faces his previous team for the first time since his record-breaking move to Chelsea 2.5 years ago. (Has it really been 2.5 years already?!) Good thing then that Enzo’s been quite productive of late, including a brace of assists in our 3-0 win against ES Tunis last time out, to go along with his goal against LAFC in the first game.
Unlike many other first-choice players, Enzo did not get the day off against Tunis, but the rotation will hopefully rejuvenate some of the legs that looked quite dead in our defeat against Flamengo. Nicolas Jackson remains suspended however thanks to the red card he picked up in that game. Liam Delap got off the mark against Tunis and will likely lead the line once again.
The winners of this match will meet and be favored against the winners of Palmeiras versus Botafogo in the quarterfinals. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
Previously: This is the fourth meeting between these two sides, with Chelsea winning all three previous, quite memorable games. Those included both legs of the 2011-12 Champions League quarterfinals, complete with the iconic Raúl Meireles celebration in the second leg, on our way to winning it all, and also the 2013 Europa League final, thanks to Branislav Ivanović’s last-minute winner. Wonder what he’s up to these days?
