Chelsea will take on Benfica in the FIFA Club World Cup round of 16 on Saturday in Charlotte.
Benfica beat Bayern Munich for the first time in the Portuguese club's history last night, meaning they have qualified as winners of Group C. Bruno Lage's men will face the Blues after Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners against against Esperance at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Chelsea only needed to avoid defeat to the Tunisian side in the scorching heat in Pennsylvania in order to progress into the knockout stages of the revamped competition. Flamengo's win against the Blues ensured the Brazilians have won Group D.
READ MORE: Chelsea handed bargain transfer after Lyon shock relegation confirmed and talks held
READ MORE: Chelsea closing in on fourth summer transfer amid £50m talks and Alejandro Garnacho interest
Should the Blues then progress into the last eight, then it will be against one of Botafogo or Palmeiras. That could be made even more interesting with Estevao Willian, the man who will join Chelsea once his participation in the Club World Cup is over, representing Palmeiras.
Enzo Maresca and his squad have spent over a week in Philadelphia now but the heat is something difficult to get used to. On Monday, the Blues trained in 38 degrees Celsius, and that, to Maresca's own admission, has made the preparation a bit more complicated.
"Tomorrow, we will do some rotation because the ones who played two games are quite tired to play again," Maresca said on Monday. "So we will make rotation, and we will see if there is a chance for those who haven’t played as much."
He continued: "It’s almost impossible to train a full session because of the weather. We are trying to save energy for the game; this morning’s session was very short, just plan for tomorrow, that's it. No more than that.
"It’s not easy with these temperatures, but we will give our best tomorrow to get to the next stage of the competition."
You may also like
'It Was Already Decided...': Gambhir Says No Change In Workload Plan For Bumrah
'Darkest chapters': PM Modi criticises Congress for 1975 Emergency; 'nefarious attempt made to strangle democracy,' says BJP
Axiom-4 mission: Halwa, and a surprise; what astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is taking on historic mission
Inside UK's landlocked beach 96-miles away from any coastline in Britain
Cricketer Rinku Singh and Priya Saroj's wedding will not happen in November, big reason came out