Chelsea’s manager, Enzo Maresca, expressed his frustration over the two-hour weather delay that interrupted his team’s Club World Cup triumph against Benfica on Saturday, indicating that the tournament’s future venues should be reconsidered.
The Blues soared into the quarter-finals, defeating Benfica 4-1 after extra time in a match that lasted 4 hours and 39 minutes due to a two-hour halt prompted by a severe storm warning.
This marked the sixth occasion that a match at the tournament had been paused, adhering to commonly implemented regulations in the United States that necessitate the suspension of outdoor sporting events at the prospect of lightning.
Maresca contended that the increasing number of disruptions calls for a rethink of the tournament’s location.
“For me, this isn’t football,” the Chelsea manager asserted. “They’ve suspended (six) games here, which I find ridiculous. It’s just not football.
“It’s astonishing; this is something I truly struggle to comprehend.
“I recognise that safety concerns require games to be paused, but if seven or eight games get suspended, perhaps this isn’t the ideal venue for such a competition.“
As Chelsea seemed on the verge of clinching victory after Reece James’s free-kick had them leading 1-0 with just four minutes remaining, the ominous weather led to the players leaving the pitch for nearly two hours.
“It was one of our best performances in recent weeks,” Maresca noted.
“For 85 minutes, the game was superb, then we were interrupted for two hours, and when we resumed, it felt like a completely different match. The rhythm was broken, and it just wasn’t the same.“
Maresca reiterated his appreciation for the Club World Cup, which has been expanded to include 32 teams for the first time this year and is being staged in the United States as an informal test run for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
“It’s a fantastic competition. This is the Club World Cup; all the top clubs are present,” he said.
“But having six or seven games suspended is abnormal. How many games have been suspended in a World Cup? Likely none. In a European Championship? None either. There’s clearly an issue here.“
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Compiled by SportArena.com.au.
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