Chelsea are having a funny old time out at the Club World Cup, and the odds reflect that.
The Blues went into the tournament among the favourites, but a pretty shocking defeat to Flamengo in Philadelphia dramatically changed the odds, with non gamstop wagering bookies seeing us dumped all the way down the list of potential winners.
Chelsea benefit from two results which change the whole tournament
But yesterday, two crucial results have swung things back the other way. Benfica unexpectedly beat Bayern Munich to make the Portuguese giants our next opposition.
Then Chelsea beat ES Tunis 3-0 while resting a lot of first team players. Beat Benfica (an eminently more easy task than beating Bayern) and we will get either Palmeiras or Botafogo in the quarter finals. That’s about as easy a run to a semi final as you could hope for in a competition like this.
Combining all those factors in our favour saw us rocket back up the list of favourites to 5th with most bookies. At 12/1 we’re still seen as major outsiders behind the likes of PSG, Man City, Bayern and Real Madrid, but our path to the semi at least looks clear.
Even getting that far will be a huge financial boost and allow manage Enzo Maresca further time to get to know our players and squad. Anything beyond that stage is a bonus.
Benfica challenge up next
We don’t want to underestimate Benfica, who just beat Bayern after all, but they are a team we should be looking to beat. They didn’t have the best season,
One potential worry is the venue – our game against them will be back at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, where the Benfica just beat Bayern in 36 degree temperatures.
Perhaps that will have been extra draining for them and give us an advantage, perhaps they will have adapted to it better. All we know is that Bayern manager Vincent Kompany said after his side’s defeat that the only good thing they could take from it was that they “don’t have to play in Charlotte anymore.”
Expect a slow, low tempo game with multiple flow disrupting water breaks which could mean few chances and play into the Portuguese side’s hands if they look to kill us with a single chance.
All we know is that we’re looking forward to the drama of Saturday night already – even if it doesn’t promise to be a classic in terms of the action on the pitch.
