Two-hour delay infuriates Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca as he says US ‘not the right place’ to host Club World Cup.
Maresca furious after Chelsea’s two-hour delay.
After Chelsea’s 4-1 victory against Benfica in the round of 16 was postponed for about two hours in Charlotte due to inclement weather, an enraged Enzo Maresca declared that the US is unable to host the Club World Cup.
After a lightning strike in the area, play was halted with five minutes remaining at the Bank of America Stadium, with Chelsea leading 1-0 and cruising to the round of eight. After an hour and fifty-three minutes, play resumed after the referees ordered the teams off the pitch to stay warm in their separate dressing rooms.
Chelsea was even more irritated when Benfica forced extra time with a contentious penalty in the final minute. Four hours and 38 minutes after kickoff, the Premier League team managed to win 4-1, but off-field activities raised concerns a year before the men’s World Cup, which will be contested in Canada, Mexico, and the US.
“For 85 minutes we were in control of the game,” Maresca said. “After the break, the game changed completely. For me it’s not football. It’s already seven, eight, nine games that they suspended. I think it’s a joke to be honest, it’s not football. It’s not for us. You cannot be inside. I struggle to understand. I can understand that for security reasons, you suspend the game. But if you suspend seven, eight games, that means that probably [this] is not the right place to do this competition.”
“I’m very happy,” Maresca said. “We are in the last eight of this fantastic competition. The team was very good. For me, one of the best performances in the last weeks and months.
“The problem is that when the game is suspended, it’s not football. Guys, it’s not football. You suspend the game, it’s not football. It’s completely something different. They [Benfica] scored because they need to chase. We are inside, we are winning. You go outside, mentally different. It’s difficult.
“We had an hour and a half, two-hour stop. Then it started completely different. It’s not the same game because you break the tempo. So two hours inside; people speak with the family outside, if they were good, the security. People eating, people laughing, people talking on the mobile. It’s two hours. That’s why I said it’s not football.
“It’s something that you struggle to understand. But we tried to go out, continue in the same way, knowing that it was difficult. It’s not random that for 85 minutes, we didn’t concede nothing. And then for five minutes, we conceded a few chances. Why? It’s because it started a completely different game.”