Why Chelsea’s draw could be “hilarious” as well as very lucrative according to top pundits | OneFootball

The Club World Cup is kicking into another gear tomorrow with the arrival of the knockout stage.

Chelsea are facing Benfica in the late kick off, and on the London is Blue podcast today they noted how nicely things were lining up for us on this side of the draw.

Chelsea fail upwards into softer half of the bracket

Nicolas Jackson gets a red card. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

“[Despite losing to Flamengo] we lucked into potentially the easier side of the bracket, despite being the second best team in our group,” said presenter Dan Dormer.

We would say there’s no potentially about it – the best teams on our side are Manchester City and an Inter Milan team who look a little disjointed after losing Simone Inzaghi. And we won’t have to face either of them until the semi final anyway.

On the other side; Bayern Munich, PSG, Juventus, Real Madrid and Dortmund make up a much stronger alternative.

Chelsea given major chance for semi final run

“So we end up playing Benfica, which I think is a more favourable draw… though they are a good team and I’m not trying to diminish them at all. Palmeiras are also a very good team, playing against Botafogo. Botafogo beat PSG the other night which is not nothing. Palmeiras have looked relatively good – getting the chance to play Estevao Willian would be hilarious,” presenter Nick Verlaney added.

“Now you actually stand a chance to advance through the round of 16 and make it to the quarter finals – you might be able to make it to the semi finals!”

Given how much each win is worth in this competition, this is all pretty significant. Beating Benfica and then either Palmeiras or Botafogo (eminently do-able) is worth tens of millions of pounds.

You can see them discuss the game in the clip embedded here: