Izuchukwu OkosiChelsea head coach, Enzo Maresca, have taken a swipe at the repeated stoppages of games at the FIFA Club World Cup in the USA due to adverse weather conditions.
Chelsea were leading 1-0 in Sunday night’s round of 16 game against Benfica with few minutes left on the official match clock when the match was temporarily called off.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe game restarted after 53 minutes and the Blues eventually won 4-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Maresca spoke to the media and in quotes attributed to the BBC and Sky Sports, the Italian said:
“For 85 minutes we were in control of the game. We didn’t concede anything, we created chances enough to win the game. And then after the break the game changed completely.
“For me personally, it’s not football. You cannot be inside for two hours. It is something completely new. I can understand that for security reasons, you are to suspend the game. But if you suspend six, seven games that means that probably is not the right place to do this competition.
Players, staff and supporters were pulled indoors because of extreme weather as thunderstorms were detected within an eight-mile radius of the venue, in line with US safety regulations.
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When the game resumed, Benfica were reduced to 10 men as youngster Gisnluca Prestianni was sent off.
Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall got the three goals for Chelsea after the restart.
Reece James had put them ahead with a fantastic freekick towards the end of the first half.
“This is a fantastic competition. The Club World Cup is top, we are happy to be in the left eight.
“It’s not normal to suspend a game in a Word Cup, hoe many games are suspended? Probably zero. In Europe, how many games? Zero.”
Chelsea won the competition in it’s old iteration.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
