greg . 2025-06-29 09:15:02

Reece James pleased with Chelsea's maturity after extra-time victory over Benfica

Chelsea captain Reece James felt victory over Benfica showed the squad's developing maturity on Saturday.

Victory over Benfica came in added time on Saturday, which included an almost two-hour suspension of the fixture at 85 minutes due to a thunderstorm.

Eventually, Chelsea won the round of 16 Club World Cup tie 4-1 on the night, with James among their goalscorers.

The captain later said, "We’ve come a long way.

It’s difficult to be so close to the end of the fixture and later have a kick in the teeth.

"To pick yourself up, brush yourself down and result a many goals probably shows how far we’ve come, and everyone has played a part this day.

"It was a very difficult fixture with a lot of interruptions.

The climate wasn’t the best, the pitch wasn’t the best, it was hard to play, and we got into 85 minutes, and we stopped for a long period of time.

"It takes a lot out of the stars to composed down and later restart that engine again, but we’re happy we got the job done.

"On his strike, James said: "As I was walking over and I was speaking to the central defenders, and I asked them what they wanted.

They said a shot, cross or in-swinger, and I said no problem.

"When I got to the ball and saw the goalkeeper's positioning, he showed me too much of the strike.

So I sole decided to shoot and it went in.

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